


Death Note Novel: Hollow Victory

by TowerofBabel



Series: Death Note Chronologies [5]
Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Bottom Yagami Light, F/M, Gay Pride, Light BDSM, Light Bondage, Light admits he might be bisexual, Light is kidnapped and tortured, Light is noble in his plight to kill criminals, Light suffers indignity at the hands of being subjected to sexual tensions, M/M, Multi, Other, vampirism?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:14:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 19
Words: 52,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22819093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TowerofBabel/pseuds/TowerofBabel
Summary: After L's death, Light is now a member of the NPA/Kira Task Force, also posing as L. When a mission comes up that he is perfect for apart from the Kira Case, Light agrees to take it. But not everything goes as planned when he's kidnapped by the Yukaza and forcefully confided and tortured. Kira's agenda: Collect names for the Death Note; Light's agenda: Stay alive.
Relationships: Light Yagami / Tigressa
Series: Death Note Chronologies [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737532
Comments: 14
Kudos: 14





	1. Light Yagami's One Year Anniversary

Light Yagami was never one for parties. In fact, he thought they were a waste of time. He thought there was better things to do than socialize with people that he had absolutely no interest getting to know or being around. However, there was also something to be said about socializing that was of an obligatory nature when it came to celebratory events — namely anniversaries.

In his moderately sized apartment that his father rented for him, that also doubled as the KIRA Task Force de facto headquarters, Light and the other task force members raised their crystal glasses filled with bubbling champagne for a collective toast. They all stood in the middle of the living room that also doubled as the War Room, they all liked to call it, where Light had his bank of monitors and hard drives.

"Congratulations to my son in becoming a police officer with the NPA one year ago today," his father said proudly. Cheers of 'here, here' were heard all around. Light had joined the National Police Agency which was the police foundation agency in Japan and then climbed the ranks quickly. Once he graduated, he was appointed to the Information Bureau, then he transferred to the KIRA case, much to the regret of the NPA, who yearned for his talents in cyber warfare.

They all clinked their glasses and took sips, except for Light. He only pretended. He didn't much care for alcohol as it dulled the senses, give him coffee or an energy booster any day. But for appearances only, he sipped the champagne for all those in attendance, so not to appear rude. One of the most important things to him on a personal level was the fact he liked to stay alert.

"Thanks Dad," Light said back.

"I'm so proud of you," Soichiro added to his sentiments and Light thanked him again. "The road has been long, and sometimes, rough, losing friends and colleagues along the way," he said a been quieter, "but we've persevered, and now, in only one short year—how time flies—you're the top information officer for both the NPA and to us in the KIRA case. L may be gone, but you are his worthy successor. And we'll catch Kira!" His voice elevated so everyone could hear. "And then justice will be served."

They clinked their glasses again taking sips, all except Light once again, pretending. _Not likely_ , Light thought. _But you can try. I'll foil your plans every step of the way, Dad. Kira is standing right in front of you!_

The KIRA task force was a farce, and they meant nothing to Light. His plans to reign over the world using the Death Note was well beyond projected targets since becoming a cop, acing the NPA entrance exam like he did with Toho University. Now he had greater freedom in which to evoke justice upon the world.

_Is it arrogant to actually know you're a genius? And that everyone else is far beneath you? No, it's the truth! I'm only two years into my campaign to cleanse the world, but it's going so well._

But, with L dead, Light felt the tedium of boredom without a rival to tax his limits. Rem, another Shinigami, had murdered L and his loyal subordinate Watari—(who turned out to be the proprietor to a child's orphanage called 'Wammy's House' in the United Kingdom, England)—with her Death Note, subsequently causing her own disintegration and death, breaking the carnival rule that all Shinigami had to follow: never fall in love with a human. It was the only way to kill a Shinigami, as Misa had told him.

Shinigami were angels of death. If they murdered a human for the benefit of another human, that went against the grain of their purpose. Shinigami killed to add to their own time span, not to extend someone else's life. Rem killed L for Misa and Misa in turn asked Rem to do so by Light's directive. That then opened the door to a number of other possibilities, he later considered. If he could manipulate a Shinigami, what else could he do?

Now he was L—the great detective. Interpol had to believe that L was still alive, so the task force opted to choose Light to succeed Ryuzaki, since at one weak moment L had admitted that Light would make the perfect person to follow in his foot steps if anything happened to him. And since both Ryuzaki—Louis Lawliet—L—(it didn't take much to learn L's real name)—and Light were both incredibly brilliant and very similar in nature, according to Light's own father, Light was the perfect choice.  
Once the congratulatory festivities were done and the others went their separate ways, talking amongst themselves, Light sat down at his work station with its bank of monitors, set his wine glass aside, and went to work. He had programmed his computer's network to look for any keywords on the internet about Kira.

Thousands of entries came up, mostly "keywords" from the internet, and within public forums, search engine inquiries, written articles of note. There were requests left on message boards for Kira to punish criminals for stated crimes: foreign and domestic, rape, robbery, attempted murder, theft, child abuse, and a variety of other things, leaving the criminal's name and picture.

To use the Death Note, Light had to envision a person's face in his mind while he wrote down a name, so a person with the same name wouldn't be affected. Even without knowing this rule, L had tried that trick when he choose his university pseudonym— _Hideki Ryuga_ : The name of a popular singer/actor in Japan at the time, where he introduced himself to Light for the first time. With a picture displayed, Light merely had to look at it, then write the name, and within forty-seconds, the criminals was nothing but a memory in the annals of time. But with L, he couldn't do that. It was obviously an alias.

He finally beat L, and now the so-called greatest detective in the world was nothing but a remembrance. To the task force, L was dead. To the rest of the world, the battle between L and Kira continued.

But that was not his concern. To him, the matter had been laid to rest.

For right now, the narrow set of perimeters for what he was actually looking for produced mostly junk, they had nothing to do with what he wished to know, so there was nothing of keen interest to him. So, for the task force, he would have to fabricate some leads for them follow later.

No one knew who Kira was, which was what he wanted. The police and other law authorities around the world—all except in this room—all accepted Kira's judgement.

Kira had complete reign to kill. He knew there were a few resistance groups, but he didn't care about them; they were all talk and no action; they talked big behind their computers but in truth they were just as impotent as the KIRA Task Force.

With a small desk mirror near his keyboard, he observed the others from afar. He was careful not to raise their suspicions of him like before. Aizawa had been the only one that suspected him as Kira before L's death. Now, he seemed to fall in line with the rest with a blind enthusiasm to find the "real" Kira.

They were all stupid in Light's eyes, killing them would be merciful. But he chose to tolerate them for now until their uselessness came to an end. He enjoyed playing games with them. It gave him a thrill. He gave the task force members fake leads to rally them, only for Kira to slip through their fingers every time.

It reminded Light of an anime serial he used to watch when he was kid, where the heroes would come within the narrowest of margins of catching the major villain only for him to slip away at the last moment, escape, and then swear his revenge on them, to come back next week with another dastardly scheme.

Light had to play the role of L for showmanship purposes. It would be much easier to kill the whole lot of them, including his father. But leaving himself as sole survivor would be tantamount in saying, " _I am Kira!_ "

And then, there was the _other_ buffoon — Misa Amane, his now steady girlfriend, but in name only.

She was beyond stupid, but she did follow his orders to the letter like a loyal subordinate. She was also head-over-heels in love with him. Kira murdered the man who slaughtered her parents. He assumed it was a fan-crush to start with, but then when she found out Light was Kira she fell in love with the man behind the persona. The whole issue was awash, as both he and Kira were the same. Did she love him or his power? Regardless, he didn't much care for her either way.

He longed for the days he spent with Kiyomi Takada, his university sweetheart. She was attractive, smart, and was fun to be with. If only they had meant earlier, they may have been lovers. But, by now, she had obviously went on to bigger and better things, since he was no longer around campus. She had an interest in television and media, so maybe he would see her on television in the future. He hoped so.

An alert came in on his computer, a double beep. He had the volume turned up, so it echoed even over the noise of the others. It was a request from one of his contacts out in the field.

He mostly dealt with the Kira Case, but he still had friends within the Information Bureau at the NPA. The NPA denied the KIRA Task Force any resources, but L had left more than enough money in reserve for it to keep going for many years to come. And he helped the IB out from time-to-time secretly. He had made some good allies within the Bureau when he took his courses. He was a genius, but he never acted like a snob, and he made a lot of good friends. He knew what he wanted to do, and he needed influence and power to get it, and as he went along, he made good contacts that he could use to help him later in his career.  
Any information from contacts he had made within the IB associated with Kira was passed down to him, albeit in secret. To help the KIRA Task Force was like signing your own professional death warrant, as Kira had ordered the NPA to stop hunting for him or he would kill their officers like he did those twelve FBI agendas, interposed in Japan.

But no one knew Light was the man everyone knew as Kira, so why would they think that the very information they gave to him about Kira could very much kill them one day? It was unthinkable.

He put in an earpiece, the music in the room was a little too loud to converse openly. "L here…" he said, using his synthesized voice box to disguise his real voice. He told his contact who announced himself as KF4— _Kira Fielder #4_ —to state the agreed daily code-phrase before relaying any information. It was for security purposes, but Light had such a sophisticated surveillance system it next to redundant.

KF4 spoke: "The sheep in the meadow has burs, but I like to pet him anyway."

Light withheld a smirk. It was a silly code-phrase and he had a different one daily. It gave him a certain perverse humour for his Fielders to say it. But no one could recite it by accident, or guess it, unless his Fielders were either compromised or tortured. In that case, he would disavow them.

"Correct," Light said. At this time, the music had been shut down and rest of the task force had gathered. He removed the earbud and put KF4 on loud speaker. "Please relay your information KF4."

KF4 relayed his information and it related to the Yukaza. They were a collective member of Japan's foremost crime syndicates. They had gone underground when Kira came onto the scene after when a lot of their members spontaneously began dying of unexplained heart attacks. They had gotten smart, and those who were left, and there was still a lot, used aliass instead of their real names. This made it ever more difficult to hunt them down. This particular bit of information related to Kira specifically. It claimed someone within the Yukaza knew who Kira was and he would sell the information for a price.

Light's mind worked. Was this legitimate? Did someone actually know the real identity of Kira? It wasn't likely, but he had to pretend there was a possibility for the sake of the task force. "Valuable info, KF4," he replied, when all the information was relayed. "Thank you, and keep in touch." He ended the call.

He swivelled his chair and faced the others. "Thoughts, gentlemen? You all heard KF4."

"I'm not sure," Matsuda, the youngest task force member, said. "It sounds a bit fishy. Like a trap."

"My sentiments exactly," Aizawa agreed. "On the other hand, our information on Kira has been scarce lately. Any information no matter how small could be important. It could lead to something else."

"Unfortunately, we don't have an inside man within the Yukaza to verify it," Light put in. "KF4 is reliable, but with information this sensitive, we should gather more intelligence before acting on it."

"What about you?" Matsuda said, his words were a little slurred. He had had too much to drink.

"You want _me?_ " Light was dumbfounded by the suggestion. "Why do you want _me_?"

His father started to retort, when Matsuda continued, "Because you're young and idealist. The Yukaza crime syndicate recruits people like you and you've got major skills with computers. Think of what they could do with that, if you offer your services?"

Matsuda was obviously not thinking with a clear head. Aizawa took the glass of champagne from the young task force member and put it aside. "I think you've had enough," he said.

"Absolutely not!" Soichiro Yagami chimed it strongly. "I will not have my son anywhere near them. They would eat him alive. They're vicious and vile. And Light is not trained to be an undercover agent."

Knowing what information he had on the collective Yukaza crime syndicates, KF4's intel had a pretty good chance of being reliable and accurate. There was no telling what the Yukaza was capable of in this new high tech world. The Dark Web had a lot of information the Free Web was not privy to. But to his knowledge, Light had closed all loopholes from his past. He had made no careless mistakes. L first learned about him because Kira's killings coincided with of a high school student. But with L's death, all his past mistakes had been erased. However, did he miss something? There was always the possibility. He had nothing to be afraid of. Yet again, this was the Yukaza…

He had to take the chance.

"With a few alterations to my appearance, I could look the part to enter their viper's den," Light said. "Right now, I look like a police officer, clean cut, proper shaven, and hair that has been looked after" —he put a hand through his styled hair. "All red flags to their organization. If I go through with this, I would need to get a major trim, a new style, and suitable clothes to match. I've been thinking of a new look anyway. So, let's do it."

He knew his father would disallow it, but he had to give the impression he was willing to do what it takes to take down Kira. And yet, even going with all this, he knew he would still need the NPA's approval since he was still one of their officers.

His father protested, of course, but Light insisted if only for appearances, and said it was a necessary step to learn the possible identity of Kira, or rather this person who claimed to know Kira's real name, and then eliminate him. He would set up a meeting with this Yukaza informant, there was really no need to enter the viper's den, and safeguard Kira's identity for good.

_To be continued..._


	2. Entering The Yukuza With A New Look

"Are you sure about this, Light?" Soichiro Yagami asked his son.

The party had just ended, only his father remained at his apartment. Mogi had to literally carry Matsuda because he was so drunk. Aizawa had left with them. They all had agreed Light's decision to infiltrate the Yukaza was best, and most likely the new NPA chief would agree to it. If it lead to concrete information on the identity of Kira, it was worth the chance Light would be taking.

He knew he had get a little more training, learn to fit into their world, act like a criminal (with a speciality), but if he was successful, not only would he get the information he needed, he would then penetrate the organization from within, gather names, and kill everyone he had been hiding from Kira with the Death Note. It would become a search and destroy mission. He only carried a small scrap of the Death Note in the secret compartment he crafted in his watch his father gave him as a gift when he entered university, so he'd have to find more places he could stash scraps around his body.

"Yeah, Dad; and it has to be done," Light replied adamantly. Once he got what he needed, he'd escape.

Along with his gun, Light also took to carrying a small tactical, telescopic, flexible black baton, which when expanded, telescoped to two and half feet in length, and retracted to a comfortable, compacted size. He strapped it to his left inner thigh with velcro. It was not standard equipment, no one else knew about it. If needed, he could rip his pant leg, and grab it. It was just added protection, a personal touch—and a piece of advise he learned from his weapons trainer at the academy.

"My only regret is my hair," he continued, brushing a hand through his lush, brown hair. He wore it down and it covered his forehead. Matsuda once joked he had no forehead because no one ever saw it. "Call me vain in this respect, but I like my hair. I'll be like cutting off a limb. I know it'll grow back, but we can't stay the same forever. Do you agree?"

His father shrugged. "You're an adult now, Light. It's your decision. But I like your hair the way it is. It's very smart for a man of your stature and intelligence, astute like a Bobby Fischer."

Bobby Fischer was a prominent grandmaster chess player in the 1950s and was world champion in the 1970s. Light knew of him and had studied many of his moves when he played chess with his friends. None of them ever matched his skill, however. To compare him to a grandmaster was beyond ecstatic. But that may also be part and parcel of a father's love. But to think his father knew of the man was bewildering.

Light smiled broadly. "Thanks, Dad," he said honoured. "That means lot. Unfortunately, it has to get cut. Maybe a little change it good for everyone once in a while?"

His father mused momentarily. "If you're looking for a good stylist, I know of someone. Getting your hair cut at a regular barber shop is not the Yukaza way. From what I've seen, even their henchmen's hair is properly styled. The man I know very good and works for the NPA, and he has many years of experience. All the women rave about him. Even I've been known to visit him from time to time. He works within my old precinct in the basement. I'll take you to him tomorrow."

"Sounds good, Dad. Are you sure you don't need a ride home? I only had a few sips of champagne."

"I didn't drink much either, I only pretended. We've both learned from Grandpa's mistake."

Light nodded, reflective. "And it only takes one small mistake to make a big impact. I was young when he died, when he went out drinking one night with his friends—you told me. He crashed into a light post. You're not a big drinker, Dad; maybe that lesson has been ingrained in me over the years? Neither one of us want to die like that."

Soichiro put a hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm so proud of you, Light. You know this, but I wanted to say it again. You've made me and your mother the happiest parents in the world."

Light had a minute pang of regret. If his father only knew that he was Kira, he wouldn't say that. But he had no regrets in what he was doing, Kira was changing the world for the better.

_Play the thankful son_ , he told himself. "That means a lot, Dad. Trust me, we'll catch Kira, and if it can arranged, I'd like to pull the switch at his execution." _Okay, that was a little over the top,_ he thought. But he wanted to play to the notion he wanted to catch Kira.

"Japan doesn't execute people anymore, Light."

"It was a figure of speech. I meant, we'll take Kira down. It may take a little time, but Kira'll be brought to justice, and then he'll be locked away for the rest of his natural life. No chance of parole. Ryuzaki wanted a private execution, but that just doesn't seem right. Kira has to suffer for what he's done."

"When we catch Kira, a private execution is still a possibility," Soichiro said hinting. "But not a public one, the Human Rights Commission would be all over it, demanding Kira be giving a life sentence only."

Light nodded. "I understand," he said.

After goodbyes, and wishing his Dad a safe trip back home, Light shut the door and then leaned his back against it, sighing deeply. He put a finger into his shirt collar, popped off the first two top buttons and loosened his tie. "Finally that farce is over," he muttered. "I hate playing to role of the good son. Now I can finally get back to brass tax. Kira can finally get back to making his judgements."

He had dream a couple of weeks back where he reigned supreme—few knew he was Kira, but they didn't know how he killed, and with this special group of people, all faceless in his dream, they helped him keep order. He ruled over everything he surveyed from a very tall citadel where he both lived and made his judgements, and there was a special podium built in a private room with a sophisticated network of computers, so he can research and establish his targets, to kill them at his leisure. It was quite and imaginative dream.

One person's face he saw clearly in his dream was that of Kiyomi Takada and she was standing at his side, she was his partner both in life and in Kira's Kingdom—a king with his queen, just like in chess. She was but one of the few who knew he was Kira and was the only one not faceless. Did he still have a crush on her from way back or was it just a man's lust for an attractive woman? Or both? Whatever it was, he wished he could see her again and show her how much he missed her.

Also in his dream, he recalled Misa had suddenly and mysteriously died from an illness, along with every member of the Kira Task Force, including his beloved father.

"Coming to bed, sweetie?" Misa asked, her head peaking out from the bedroom door seductively. Then she emerged fully, wearing a see-through, silk nighty that left nothing to the imagination. But she didn't nothing for him, not like Takada did. Misa was a dullard and making love to an idiot like her was like humping a watermelon, she demeaned to his self worth. He deserved someone intelligent, someone who matched his wits and charm, a woman like Kiyomi Takada.

x x x

The next morning, Light's father picked him up at his apartment and they drove to his old precinct. Despite quitting the NPA, and working solely on the Kira Case, his old colleagues welcomed their former superintendent with open arms. Soichiro Yagami was reacquainted with some of his oldest friends and congratulations were had all around for Light in passing his police foundations courses with flying colours.

After that, his father took him to the man he spoke about late last night and introduced him to the precinct stylist. He was a weird and flashy, younger looker man, who had a flamboyant personality, with a pink mohawk-styled hair, black at the sides, and lots of jewelry around his neck, wrists and fingers. He wore all black. It didn't need to be said that the man was of a certain persuasion, but it doesn't seem to bother his father. Light, however, was on guard. He didn't have any gay friends and he wasn't used to their company. He felt nervous. The man's name was Claude.

The place looked like your atypical barber shop with a chair forefront. Mirrors were on every wall and tools of the trade were on marble counters, combs in antiseptic solution, with blow driers fitted into slots under the counter, and several different types of scissors and combs sat on a trays on rolling tables.

The man greeted his father with a happy smile and a friendly hug and welcomed him back. Obviously Claude knew his father quite well. No last name was given.

Light was asked to sit in the barber chair and then the man wheeled it around to take a closer look at him. Claude stared intently at Light's brown hair as if examining it for flaws or style impersonations. For Light's liking, the man was too close.

Claude turned his head from side to side. "Well, well, well, don't you have nice hair, cutie-pie," he said. Light blinked, and his face reddened with a nervous flush. He had to admit, he had no idea what to say to that.

_Just breath, Light…_ "Um, well, thank…you?"

"You never told me you had such a wonderfully handsome son, Soichiro?"

Soichiro Yagami smirked amused.

"Don't be nervous, Detective," Claude smiled. "I call everyone cutie-pie, it helps lighten the mood. But, by appearances, I've only made you tense-up. Forgive my impudence." Light accepted his apology.

Claude went to the counter to prepare the items he would need, washing his hands to start.

"I've done my homework on you, detective, and you have an impressive record, top marks at the academy; you breezed through the exams like they were nothing." He looked back. "Once again, don't be nervous. Your father called me last night and said you'd be coming in today, so I looked through your profile. I also like to know whose hair I'm cutting. In your personal data, it says you've had the same hair style since you were a child. Time for a change?" He smiled. "I normally flip through a catalog for hair styles, but your cheekbones are too narrow to pull most of the styles off for undercover work. If you plan to go undercover, as your father has stated, you're going to have look genuine. Fakes can be seen a mile away."

Claude returned to Light and fingered through his hair. The man's presence once again made him feel uncomfortable. It wasn't the touch, he had his hair trimmed many times before, but it was the person. Call it prejudice, but the man's life style wasn't for Light. Of course, Light would have to get used it, sheltered as he had been studying all the time in high school. In the profession he had undertaken, millions of people around the world were of Claude's persuasion, even within the NPA, but that type of curiosity never crossed his mind. It was politically incorrect to reject people of his nature now, however. You could get in real trouble. So, he kept his opinions to himself and bared it.

Claude pouted, his hand fingering through Light's hair as if it were wet strains of spaghetti. He messed it about, as if trying to work the 'bedhead look'. For some people the "messy look" worked for them while being stylish. While it worked momentarily, it didn't stay and just flopped down. "You have awfully straight hair, detective. I'm going to have re-think my game plan with you. Most of the styles I had in mind won't suit you." The stylist cupped his chin, then circled Light, obviously thinking hard.

Just then, his father's cell phone rang. Soichiro answered it. After a few moments, he gasped. The moment he ended the call, he said, "Sorry Light, the mission's been cancelled. They just found a body in an alley way not far from here stuffed carelessly in a dumpster. He had a cell on him and they're sifting through the directory now, but they did find a contact attributed to the Kira Task Force, and an anonymous call was placed to the number late last night around 8:35pm."

Light's eyes widened. _My informant? He called at approximately the same time._ "How did he die?"

Claude excused himself to leave them both alone. They waited until he was out of earshot.

"He was shot in the chest and then had his tongue cut out. It's symbolic for the Yukaza. Looks like someone had him marked. Someone must've known he was giving us information."

Light agreed, the Yukaza had been known to do this to 'rats' as they called them. "But the mission? It's important!" Although, he wasn't too thrilled about it, he was glad it was called off now.

"We'll have to find another way. It's too dangerous now."

Light swore under his breath, but in his mind, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was sure the information KF4 had relayed to him wasn't genuine given to him by a Yukaza 'rat'. There was absolutely no way anyone knew he was Kira or of Kira's true identity. Misa was his only confidante and she would never 'rat' him out.

_At least I get to keep his hair,_ he thought with some amusement.

They left the precinct and Soichiro drove back to Light's apartment, the de facto Kira headquarters. Light didn't have his driver's license yet or he would've driven himself, but he was taking lessons. After a collective call, the rest of the task force would later fall suit back at the apartment.

When he arrived home, Light sat in his usual chair in front of the bank of monitors that was his work station and thought. He crossed his legs one over the other as his father used the washroom. Misa was at work, shooting some sort of perfume commercial. Something about KF4's death was very suspicious, but he'd soon learn a motive after an NPA investigation and his father would get the results through his usual contacts.

As of late, he couldn't do much in the way of being Kira with the task force always breathing down his neck, they were at the apartment nearly every day. They never gave him breathing room. So, he had to rely on Misa to be Kira in his absence, scouring the internet and media, using the Death Note to kill criminals. But it wasn't the same as doing it himself, and he missed it. At first, he had plenty of time to serve justice, but most recently, the task force members were hounding him in their unrelenting search for Kira information.

He was frustrated and a little stressed out. If he could, he would take a vacation. But then who watch over the watchers, namely the task force, while he was gone? Maybe stress was playing a significant role in his relationship with Misa and his sexual performance? But how then to reduce his stress load?

When the rest of the Kira task force assembled, Light told them the mission had been called off due to KF4's untimely demise and that investigators had found the KIRA Task Force hotline number in his phone directory, informing his father.

"One of my informants was found dead in a dumpster an hour ago and the NPA are currently investigating his death, but they're treating it as a normal homicide by gang related means," Light said. "KF4 appeared to be marked. They found him shot in the chest with his tongue cut out. It's a telltale signal to others that he was an informant, and probably a personal message to me, L."

"What do we do now?" Aizawa asked.

"We wait for more information to pass our way. I'm afraid that's all we can do."

_To Be Continued..._


	3. A Rookie Mistake

That night, Light stayed up late to finish up some work he had been working on for a private matter. He was at his work station in the living room wearing only a pair of black jockey's. Since training to become a police officer, he had to learn to take better care of himself and he began to lift weights. For five months straight, he went to gym and developed and toned his body to fantastic shape.

He had always been very thin when he was a kid and even in high school. Studying took up most of his time, but he found the motivation to re-invent himself when he joined the police force. Kira was going to rule the world one day and the master of the world had to look the part. And, of course, it also helped him in his police foundations courses.

Bored, he swivelled in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. He stared out into the open room, thinking off nothing in particular. He wanted to clear his mind of all his troubles. But one thing kept cropping up, and it had to do with something started from last night with Misa. He felt frustrated, making love to Misa didn't excite him. And yet, he didn't know what he wanted. He didn't think there was a term for what he was feeling and he had been unable to get "excited" for days.

In normalcy, he was above average. And he had lost his virginity to a non-virgin, although he had lied to Misa when she asked if he had been with any other women. On one hand she was a jealous woman, on the other, he was Kira, and Kira was second to no-one—in to relations of love or to the average person. Misa had been around, and she wasn't shy about admitting it. She was an actress and sometimes she had to "put out" to get a part, and she said was okay with that, but he refused to be a charity case.

Stress often played a major role in sexual frustration. Was his job really that stressful? Was it the underline cause of why he couldn't enjoy the pleasure of a woman? One thing for sure, Misa had tried the other night, twice. And to had insult to injury, she had said that it eventually happens to every man and it wasn't anything to worry about.

_Perhaps I'm just not attracted to Misa because she doesn't stimulate me intellectually? Physically, she is beautiful. But I need something more._ Maybe he needed a little more imagination? Videos? Exotic literature? Maybe Misa wasn't right for him? She did force herself on him, entering his world when she was given a Death Note.

Intelligence stimulated him more, but Kiyomi Takada was the only one that fit that bill.

But Misa was like some crazy vixen who trapped men for a living. As along as she knew that he was Kira and had the Death Note, his life was literally hanging in the balance. Misa was an unstable woman, and she was the type who would flip out on a whim if he made her mad to jealous. So, when he was with her, he had walk on egg shells. What if she decided to get smart and kill him and then became Kira herself?

He chuckled to himself. The thought was ludicrous.

He shook his head. _What in the world was he thinking? Think about changing the world for the better—Kira's world_ , he told himself, _and stop thinking about things of distraction. Once your world is in place, then you can think about fulfilling your human desires._

Suddenly, he got a call on his computer, which was relayed by his cell phone that was on was on the work desk, and answered the call, putting an earbud in his right ear. The call wasn't for L, but for Light: "Yagami, here."

The caller was from dispatch at the NPA, and the female dispatcher asked if he would be willing to speak to the new superintendent in charge of his father's old precinct on a work related matter even though he didn't directly work for the NPA anymore. He accepted, and the call went through.

"Detective Yagami, sorry to get you up at such a late hour, can we speak?" Light told the chief he hadn't gone to bed yet, and to continue. "Good," the Superintendent said. "I'm familiar with your expertise and work within the Intelligence Bureau, and at the moment, we need a person like you to substitute for a man who has _Gone Critical_." _Gone Critical_ was code for someone who had a heart attack. "We don't believe it was Kira's fault, just bad food choices. He'll be okay, but he's in hospital at the moment. We need you to take his place."

Light asked what the job entailed and the Superintendent informed him it was simple video surveillance work for a suspected Yukaza hideout near a closed down matinee theatre, but it was in a bad part of town. A man was currently there in a surveillance van, everyone worked in pairs for safety. The Superintendent said two detective's would pick him up and take him if needed. It was simple job, just listen for any activity.

_Tedious and boring_ , Light thought. But he couldn't refuse. It would look bad.

"When should I expect a car?" He asked the names of the agents for identification purposes only. The detective's names who would be picking him up were naked Sai and Hyde.

"Within fifteen minutes," the Superintendent said. He thanked Light, and the call ended.

Light got out of his chair. There was no time for his problem right now, he had work to do.

Getting dressed, Misa asked him where he was going. Light explained that he was joining another officer on a simple video surveillance job, but he didn't know how long he would be.

After he dressed in all black, he put on his watch, holstered his gun and strapped his baton to his inner thigh inside his pants—although he doubt he would need either of them—and left the apartment to wait at street level for his ride.

As he walked down the steps of his apartment complex to street level, his cell phone dinged. He immediately took it out of his pocket and checked it, thinking it may be from one the detective's the superintendent was sending, like a sent text like a taxi would send a customer to say they were around the corner.

Instead, it was from Misa. It was a video file with the text message: "You haven't been interested in me lately, so maybe this will "stimulate" you…" and to punctuate the text, she added a emoji sticking out its tongue out. He didn't have time for her jokes, but when he got to street level, he had a moment as the car hadn't arrived yet, so he played the small clip.

The video was of two men engaging in coitus. Within moments, he stopped it. "I'll kill her, I'll bloody kill her!"

An unmarked dark Sedan pulled up to the curb, they gave their names, and Light got in the back. The man called Sai was a squirrelly, thin looking guy, and Hyde, was a broad shouldered, hefty-larger man. As the car pulled out from the curb, he asked, "I'm told I'm partnering with a man conducting video surveillance to an entrance to a new Yukaza hideout, correct?" to confirm.

"It's actually a drug raid," Hyde said, he was driving.

"Wait! This doesn't fit the information I was told," Light voice elevated.

"New information Superintendent Tatami of the NPA wanted us to relay. It's a double-header. But you'll still be doing video surveillance, helping out our man in the van to coordinate SAT (Special Assault Team) and the other Field Teams. They're all ready to go, waiting on you. Your police profile says you can do that at least that, right?"

"And what does that supposed to mean?"

Sai, who sat in the passenger seat, looked back with an amused smirk, and waved off the comment. "Don't worry about Hyde. He's just a little disgruntled that he wasn't picked for this job even though he has more experience. But the Superintendent wanted you specifically, Yagami. Your experience in the Kira case is highly regarded, even if the NPA has to publicly disavow the investigation and its members."

That put Light at ease. For a moment, he felt he had been purposely fed misinformation.

As they drove him to the site, he thought about the suspicious death of KF4 after he gave L information that a Yukaza insider may have had information on the real identity of Kira. Then, if not in relation to it, he got a call to work video surveillance regarding a Yukaza drug/new hideout raid. He didn't believe in coincidences, but he did believe in correlations. It wasn't a secret that he was working on the Kira Case.

He made sure his GPS locator was activate on his phone before he got to the site. The Sedan pulled up to an unmarked dark-coloured moving van. Light shook his head, an unmarked van in a dilapidated place like this was so cliche, the place looked more like a battle zone for gang wars, he thought. The van just screamed police.

Getting out, he immediately noticed the abandoned matinee theatre to his right, and with his keen eyes, he observed a lot of SWAT and others teams all ready to go, dressed in black vests and armed to the teeth with semi-automatics. With that much firepower, they were expecting a possible gangland shootout. This was much more than he bargained for and he thought maybe it wasn't a good idea to agree to come.

But it was the Superintendent of the NPA that requested him personally and he needed to prove himself outside the Kira Case for people to request him more often. It would also increase his reputation as a good investigator. He needed a change of venue, the Kira Case was getting stifling, and this provided it.

Once out of the car, Hyde rapped on the back doors of the van, then it was opened by a dark-haired man in completely black attire, similar to Light, revealing a sophisticated workup of surveillance equipment with banks of monitors and other listening devices inside behind him. The man looked at the two detectives, but didn't speak as if confused. He had headphones on and he looked like a man completely focused in his work. Then things clicked in. "You, Yagami?"

"Yes," Light said, as he took the hand of the man and stepped in the van. "Where do you need me?"

"The name's Ito, you'll be working surveillance with me," the man said, shaking Light's hand. "I trust you're already familiar with all this equipment?" Light nodded. He felt like the man was testing him like a rookie. He was arrogant but direct. "Good! Enough with the small talk. Let's get cracking." He plopped his butt onto a swivel chair in front of some monitors. "Our SAT's are already stationed around the corner of the building and the IED/explosives/Drug Field Teams with sniffer dogs are on stand-by. They seem to already have the scent, so we know there are drugs in the old matinee. We never knew about this place until we got a very reliable tip. We know factions of the Yukaza have staked this territory and as you saw when you pulled up, it looks like a war zone out there. So, be prepared for gunfire. Got your weapon?"

Light nodded. He sat down on the opposite chair with its separate bank of monitors. He was familiar with all the control boards, so he didn't need anything explained to him. This was his chance to prove to himself outside the Kira Case. He had always wanted to be a cop like his father long before he acquired the Death Note, now he could put everything he learned to the test.

Power was everything, and influence and reputation were equally important in obtaining that power. He had to climb the ladder and get experience. The more people he impressed, the more people down the road would see that _Kira_ had all their best interests at heart. He was ready to test his mental mantle here.

He looked at the two detectives who had driven him here and wondered why they were still here. They had done their job, neither one of them were a part of this operation as far as he was aware. And if they were, standing out in the open was just making themselves targets. They should either be in or out and the van rear doors closed.

Light slipped on the headphones, but he moment he did, he suddenly heard blood-curdling screams and the sound of rapid-fire. " _It's a trap! Look out!_ " he heard one male panicked voice, but his shouting was soon cut off. There was a series of gun fire, and it lasted for about a minute, and then nothing. Dead silence. No chatter, no gun-fire—nothing!

Ito demanded reports. "SAT Team 1—respond? SAT Team 2—respond? Field Team 1—respond? Field Team 2—respond? Damn it! Anyone, if you're alive—respond?" he demanded. He turned in his chair, "Light, this is—" and then he gasped. Suddenly reaching for his own gun, he was shot in the upper chest by Hyde.

Light rolled back and fell out of his chair—it reminded him of the time he first met Ryuk—and his hands instinctively went for his own gun in its holster under his left arm. Hyde pointed his gun directly at Light, and Light halted, putting his hands up. He didn't beg for his life, Light didn't say anything. Hyde waved his gun for Light to depart the van. Now Sai was also brandishing a gun.

Had it been a set up from the very start? The Yukaza had just wiped out two SWAT and Field teams. Were Sai and Hyde dirty cops or infiltrators? All this raced in Light's mind within seconds.

Light departed the van and then was pushed to the ground by Sai.

"You're the sole survivor, pretty-boy," the small man said, and then kicked Light in side of the arm. Light knew how to take a punch, he had learned it in defence training. But kicks were harder. Sai then used his foot again to shove Light end over end. Hyde towered Sai by a good two feet and his chest was twice as broad, but the little man tried to overcompensate by acting tough.

Sai grabbed Light's gun that was holstered under his arm and threw it away. "You're coming with us, Yagami. The boss wanted a member of the NPA, he doesn't care who. He wants to know all your secrets, every little tidbit. You see, Kira murdering criminals is one thing, but the Yukaza still flourishes in underground drug markets and Nazareth has been dispatched to keep it that way."

_Nazareth…_

Light had heard that name before. It had come up in a briefing. With items regarding Kira, the task force also had to sift through reports that directly and indirectly involved their immediate focus, to form correlations, and to pinpoint possible targets. The name Nazareth was an alias used by someone within the Yukaza, so the task force had no idea who he really was. But before he could recall any prevalent information, Sai kicked him in the ribs.

Light folded over and grit his teeth in pain.

Hyde put a hand on Sai's shoulder. "Enough, our orders were to bring in him in alive," he said directly.

Light didn't have his gun, but he wasn't defenceless. He ripped open the pants of his left inner thigh and grabbed his baton. Rolling to his feet, with a press of button, he telescoped it fully to its full two-and-half-feet, and whacked the gun out of Sai's hand, and then used it like a staff to hit the little man in the side of the arm. And eye for an eye.

His training at police foundations had also made his body more flexible, so after Sai was down, he performed a leg sweep to Hyde, and the big guy came crashing down on his back like a bag of wet cement. Light also disarmed him, took his gun, pointed and then fired without hesitation, blasting a hole through the man's head. "That was for killing Ito!" Even though Light had only just meant the man a minute before, he felt a sense of revenge to give Ito justice. Without the Death Note, it was the best he could do.

"You son of a bitch!" Sai shouted.

Sai jumped to his feet, charged, and barrelled into Light's stomach. The two clawed at each other and fought on the ground. For such a little man, the toughness he portrayed wasn't an act, Light soon learned. Sai needed to overcompensate for his shorter statue, but his body was muscular, Light took note, as they both fought for supremacy. Light managed to push the man off him and rolled away, retrieving his baton. But Sai had also retrieved his weapon and fired off a few shots at Light.

Ducking behind the surveillance van, Light took a moment. His heart was beating fast and he was panting from the sudden fight. He decided that he had no choice but to use the piece of the Death Note stashed in his watch. Sai had to die, or he would die. Once the man was dead, Light would take the van out of here.

He managed to yank twice on the pin of his watch that would release the hidden compartment with the Death Note piece, when a shot bounced off the corner of the van where Light was standing, breaking his concentration. The compartment would only open after three consecutive quick pulls. He had only managed to do two before stopping.

Sai started to come around the corner. Light slammed the baton on the corner of the open van door, if only to frighten the man. Then he pushed the van door back, slamming it shut, in an attempt to knock Sai off guard. But Sai wasn't there. Neither did he try to jump into the van. Suddenly, the other door came to whack Light in the shoulder and it made him drop the baton. Light knew he had just made a rookie mistake. Never get cocky and go searching for your enemy, especially with so many unknown variables.

Sai pointed his gun at Light, he was panting too. Light raised his arms in the universal gesture of surrender.

"Nice moves, kid, but in the end, it all comes down to experience." Sai grunted. "Man, you are tall. You killed my friend, you bastard, so, I'm going to pay you back a thousand fold!"

Sai kicked Light in the crotch. In reaction, Light folded over. This brought him down to a suitable height for Sai to launch his final attack. It was then Sai cold-cocked Light in the side of the head with his gun and Light collapsed to the ground.

Light's mind went foggy.

"Sweet dreams, rookie…"

Sai kicked him in the head to finish him off and it was lights out for Light.

_To be continued..._


	4. Hostage

The instant the icy water splashed his face Light was startled awake from unconsciousness. He gasped, then shook his head and snorted, water had gotten up his nostrils. He coughed. His hair was drenched and droplets of water fell into his eyes, stinging them, even after he blinked several times to clear the foggy film from his pupils. _How long have I been unconscious?_

It was then he saw a big brusque, bald, tanned man with a bucket in hand, standing before him. He wore an airy tank top shirt that exhibited his muscular physique with a weight-lifers belt wrapped around his stomach with dark pants and steel tip leather boots. The man looked like a wrestler or someone who would fight in octagon fights against other opponents with no holds barred.

Light found himself restrained in a chair, his hands bound behind him, and his ankles wrapped with wire to keep him from moving. The chair was immobile, probably bolted to the floor. The room appeared to be some sort of large storage room. It was dark, and windowless, expect for a few dim overhead lights. There were a few crates staked up against the far wall, and Sai was sitting observant on one of them eating an apple. Light momentarily compared the squirrelly man to a Shinigami remaining neutral, watching, and eating, as if enjoying the entertainment.

He turned back to the brusque-looking man and noticed the edge of a tattoo on the man's stomach. He couldn't quite make it out because of the man's shirt and the dim lighting, but judging from where he last was, he figured these two were part of the Dragon Sect, a branch of the Yukaza's many facets.

Light eyed the man with distain.

"Oh look, Naz, the guy looks angry," Sai said with a small chuckle, jumping down off the crate. Sai came over and cupped Light's chin tightly and turned his head from side to side, looking at his face. "I gave you some good bruises after I knocked you unconscious. I'll have to apologize to the Mistress for that later. But you gave me a lot of trouble, Yagami, and you murdered my friend. So, you deserve every last one of them."

Light spat in Sai's face. Sai retaliated by delivering a back handed slap. Light recoiled and felt a small stream of blood began to descend from the left corner of his mouth.

"He probably knows tons of juicy secrets, but we've been barred from drawing them out. The Mistress wants him now." Naz, short for Nazareth, punched a fist into a hand frustrated. Sai put a hand on the man's arm calmingly, patting the man's large, tree trunk forearm. Light observed that the man was probably nothing more than an enforcer and probably stupid, only having his toughness working for him. "Don't worry, Naz. They'll be others. When she learned he was here—that we have an NPA detective, and I sent a picture of him to her—she immediately wanted him. So, we can't touch him now."

"I'll never talk!" Light said adamantly. "I'll never betray my colleagues or the NPA." _If only you knew who I was, you'd beg for your lives_ , he thought. "They say size makes the man, but I bet you're just as small as your stature," taking a stab at Sai.

Nazareth chuckled.

Sai sneered. "Why you…" But Naz held him back with a single hand, cupped around Sai's head. The man's hand was large enough to cover the back of Sai's head and part of his forehead. The enforcer wasn't a talker. "You're right," Sai said, as if responding to something unsaid. Naz released him; Sai immediately calmed down. He leaned in close to Light's face. "But you won't be brash when the Mistress gets through with you, detective. No one has ever resisted her devilish charms."

x x x

"What do you mean he'd gone?" Siochiro Yagami yelled at Misa in Light's apartment. "I was supposed to meet him here this morning to go over a few fresh leads regarding the Kira case!"

"Don't yell at me, Mr. Yagami!" Misa retorted with a snort. She tried to act forceful, but Light's father's face was meaner than she could ever be and her own anger quickly deflated as a result. Light's father could be a very scary person when he wanted to be. So, she tried to calm him down. "He got a call late last night to participate in some sort of video surveillance job, he didn't give me a lot of the details. Only that he was requested by the superintendent of the NPA personally. And said Light's expertise was needed, as he was once part of the Information Bureau, and because he's good with computers. Light said he didn't know when he was going to be back. But it's been over six hours, he should've checked in."

Misa checked her phone, no texts or calls from Light. She even checked his GPS locator. He always switched it on whenever he was out on police business, just in case he was in any trouble. She pinged his phone, but it came back as undetectable location. It was either switched off or he was in a dead zone.

Soichiro apologized, putting a hand to his face abashed. "I didn't mean to yell, it's just Light knows protocol. He shouldn't have left without notifying at least one of the task force members. At least he told you, so we have insight into how much time has lapsed since his disappearance." Using his cell phone, Soichiro dialled the front desk to his old precinct and asked to speak to the new superintendent at the NPA—his old position before he resigned to solely work on the Kira Case with his son.

After a short conversion, Superintendent Tatami confirmed he had indeed called Light late last night on a video surveillance job, but than it subsequently turned into a drug raid on a Yukaza hideout at the old matinee theatre. It happened so quickly, he then explained. Two of his officers were assigned to pick him up and take him to the site.

"But I have some bad news, Yagami," Tatami said further. "The raid was a complete failure. It appears the Yukaza had inside information about it and all ours teams was wiped out. Two SAT and two Field teams, including Ito, our main video surveillance tech, whom Light was assisting in the raid. One of our detectives that was sent to collect Light from his apartment was also found dead from a gunshot to the face, and one other is missing; we no information on his whereabouts. We looked into their backgrounds after the incident. We now figure they were on the take. Currently, your son is missing in action."

Soichiro Yagami gasped, and he mouthed quietly under his breath: " _Light…my son…_ "

x x x

It had been over two hours since he had awakened, and during that time Light had not been asked one question, nor tortured in any way. He had been left alone with his own thoughts in a closed-up storage room, restrained, and left to dwell on his possible fate.

And he wondered if the worse was yet to come. _Indeed, this was only the beginning,_ he thought.

He wondered who this "Mistress" was that Sai referred to?

The term was a label for "the woman of the house" or it was another term for "Madame", a dominating woman who punished men in "torture dens", rooms or places where unspeakable horrors resided. He had been told about a few while he was taking his foundation courses, and where, when found, it was like finding a house of horrors. He had seen pictures with dead bodies on meet hooks, without their genitals, blood spattered on walls, organs removed to sell on the black market, but left in petri dishes or left to rot, along with other instruments of bloody torture, including chain saws and electric carving knives used to slice meat.

Suddenly he became very aware of the gravity of his situation. Most assuredly, the Yukaza would want NPA classified information. He had been part of the Information Bureau for nearly a near before transferring to the Kira Case fully. But on occasion he worked collectively for both and became privy to many internal secrets.

He wanted to infiltrate the Yukaza to get information on who may know the real identity of Kira, but that didn't work out. Yet, he never thought he would be caught in a situation like this. He had been foolish and he knew it wasn't like him. Sometimes pride blinds a person to other things around them and his pride certainly did it this time. He chided himself.

It was a classic rookie mistake which could cost him— _and Kira's_ —his life!

He wagered if the NPA—or Misa—were searching for him, then the GPS locator in his phone would show them his position. But it was probably either switched off or he was in dead zone, which was why there hadn't stormed this place yet.

By now, his father had probably called Superintendent Tatami of the NPA and was told what had happened with the raid, and at this moment, the area—the abandoned matinee—was probably being scoured over with a fine tooth comb, the Yukaza that attacked the teams long gone, and all potential-suspected drugs removed. Forensics would probably be on scene for clean-up, too, and they would find the man Light had shot at point-blank in the face. Other from the Death Note, that was the first person he had ever killed. And he had done it without feeling or regret. Did that make him a psychopath like some claimed _Kira_ was?

The entire raid had been doomed from the very start, he wagered. The slaughter and a waste of valuable man power was costly. And even as Kira, he couldn't do anything about it. If he had names and faces, he could've written their names down in the Death Note long before now to prevent this. But not even he— _Kira_ —was clairvoyant and omnipresent.

The only thing that concerned him now was what that of his own current situation, so he put everything else aside.

A wooden sliding door moved back at the far end of the storage room and illumination burst through from the outside, a paisley coloured corridor walls was seen. He had seen the corridor before when both Nazareth and Sai left him hours ago, but with the chair secured to the floor and him tied up, he couldn't move to see anything else. _I have to be underground,_ he thought. _The air from the ventilation system smells recirculated. Am I in one of their hideouts?_

When Kira burst onto the scene, the Yukaza went underground to hide from his judgements.

In the darkness of the room, the sudden illuminance gave the person that had opened the door a silhouette like lining, his features masked out. But Light knew by his stature alone it was Sai.

"She'll see you now, Yagami," Sai said chuckling.

Sai stood at the threshold of the doorway, then Naz came limbering in, and went straight to Light. The chair was not bolted to the floor as Light had thought, rather clamped down, and Naz released the clamps, lifted the chair with Light strapped in over his shoulder, upside down, and left through the door. Light looked at Sai as Naz carried him down a corridor and the short man seemed to smile with a sinister grin, as if he knew what was waiting for Light.

Light asked where he was and he was told he was in a Yukaza facility deep underground, but no where near the matinee where the shootout had commenced. Light figured the underground complex was similar to an ant colony and there had to be a main hub. This obviously was only one part of it the overall complex. He wondered how large it was. But all he saw—and upside down—were typical corridors, as Naz and Sai lead him down branches of hallways. He tried to memorize the path taken, but all he got was dizzy.

They took him to a reception area on the other side of a red curtain. Inside, the room was lavishly decorated with a love seat, painted with purples and yellows. In one corner of the room sat a young woman, if Light had to guess, she was young, in her early twenties, like him. She was sitting up straight in a basic wooden chair and she seemed to stare at nothing, her eyes glazed over. An old style telephone sat on a small round flat fabric covered table next to her.

She acknowledged both Naz and Sai when they brought Light in, Naz put the chair down on the opposite wall that had no furniture. There was a large landscape picture of the Japanese countryside on the wall above him, what was left after Industrialization. It was a serene picture and it was probably the last calming thing anyone every saw before entering this place—another blood red curtain separated the reception area from another area. The sitting woman starred at the picture blankly, Light observed.

Seconds later, as if timed, without saying a word, she picked up the telephone, as if knowing what to do, waited for a moment, and then spoke, informing whomever, saying that "He" was here. She waited, as if listening for instructions, then hung up the phone. She informed Naz and Sai of what was said, then just returned to her static sitting stance, saying nothing else.

Just then, a young man pulled back the curtain. He had a face that looked very young and had a thin figure. He had thick, black, long hair braided in a pony tail that fell over his left shoulder and curled half way down his black sleeveless shirt. He also wore black pants, black boots with steel tips, and a silver skull and crossbones on his belt clamp. To end the ensemble, he wore a plain black choker collar as if he belonged to someone like a pet. On his right arm was an intricately designed black and red tattoo of the Dragon Sect of the Yukaza, the full version of the same Light had partially seen on Naz earlier. It was a coiled, scaly dragon, wrapping itself around his arm all the way down to his wrist. On his wrist was a metal decorative band with his name on it.

The young man cocked his head slightly and then looked Light up and down. Light did the same, forming a mental profile of the young man if only by physical appearance. The young man then crossed the distance and brought his face close with Light's. Light looked into the teen's eyes, memorized by the sprinkling green colour.

"Greetings," the young man said cordially. "Detective Light Yagami of the NPA, is it?" Light said nothing, but his silence was confirmation enough it seemed. "My name is Riki, and I am the Mistress's Prime Assistant. My Mistress is engaged with another matter at the moment, she is such a busy woman, so I will be conducting the particulars of your Evaluation to determine if you are suitable for an audience with her. But if you do not measure up, then there is no reason for you to even see her. Your compliance will is mandatory in this matter."

"Compliance? What does that mean? What sort of evaluation?"

"Are you not aware of where you are, Detective?" the young man looked at Naz and Sai. They both shook no. "Ah, so they haven't told you. Then it will be a surprise, very good. You look like very healthy, Detective Yagami, but my evaluation will determine that."

Riki then turned and looked at the young woman who was sitting in the corner and nodded. The woman picked up the telephone and then spoke quietly into it. Moments later, two taller, bigger men, similar to Nazareth, entered the reception area wearing all black clothing, and came to stand on other side of Light's chair. They looked like your basic Yukaza thugs. Light looked at them both.

"What's going on?" Light insisted.

"I'll be conducting my evaluation elsewhere, Detective. Please, do not be alarmed. It should only take about an hour or so. If you are compliant, you will not be harmed. If you are defiant, you will be punished. It will become obvious where you are soon, if you don't figure it out before hand. If I find you agreeable, only then will you be escorted to my Mistress for Questioning."

"Questioning?"

Light protested, but his demands were ignored. Riki bowed to Sai and Naz, as was Japanese tradition, and then the two men picked up Light's chair between then, and carried him through the adjacent curtain.

Riki followed suit.

_To be continued..._


	5. The Medical Evaluation

Through the adjacent curtain, Light was yet again taken down another corridor.

_This place already feels like a maze_ , he thought.

Restrained in the chair, he could hear screams behind closed doors when he passed. An image of an insane asylum with its locked doors and screaming patients came to mind. He could hear blood-curdling screams and cries from those within some of the rooms, being tortured, soon acquainting to their torturer's demands for information. He heard both men and women. Obviously, this place was the torture den for the Dragon Sect.

" _Stop that! Not that!_ " one male screamed. " _Oh, sweet god!…I'll talk! I'll talk!_ "

_Whatever god they believed in could not help them, Light thought. Will I be subject to the same torture?_

Riki led the way, followed by the thugs.

"Where are you taking me?" Light demanded.

"To an Evaluation Room, Detective Yagami," Riki replied, without looking back. The boy acted superior, and the two men followed his every instruction. Apparently there was some sort of hierarchy here and this teen was high on top. Was he the son of one of the top echelon within the Dragon Sect? "Others you hear are also undergoing their own Evaluations."

"And what will I be _evaluated_ on? No, I demand you release me right _now_!"

Riki turned his head and smiled with slight amusement. "We shall see, Detective Yagami. As all of the other rooms are occupied, I shall be taking you to our special suite for VIP's. It has everything I need to conduct a very thorough and proper evaluation."

"You still haven't explained what I'm being evaluated on?"

Riki didn't answer.

Once they reached their destination, Riki opened a set of double doors and walked in. With the two men following, Light was then set down on the floor.

It looked like a typical medical examination room, but much brighter and spacious.

Riki pulled off a white sheet that unveiled a horizontal X-type medical table with straps at each end for arms and legs. It was the centre piece to the large room filled with what looked liked medical equipment, with a sink for washing. The walls were painted a light purple shade with both walls holding up widescreen televisions screens, as if used for watching different moments of the exam. White sheets also covered what looked like trolley trays with indistinguishable items underneath left to Light's imagination.

Riki nodded, and as if giving a mental instruction, one man suddenly grabbed Light's throat. He held him tightly, as the other cut Light's restraints. Once free, Light was lifted into the air, his feet dangling off the floor, and he was carried by his throat to the X-table and placed down, the other man strapping his wrists and ankles down with velcro straps. Light struggled but to no avail.

The two men were instructed to leave and shut the door. Riki and Light were left alone.

On one of the trolley tables, which Riki rolled to Light's side, he took off a sheet to reveal metal scissors and other instruments. Light recognized an old style barbers blade used for shaving and a cream bottle. Older men liked a clean cut, using shaving cream and an old style blade instead of an electric razor.

Of that age, Light preferred an electric razor to shave his face. But he didn't feel the need for a face shave, so why would such a thing be needed?

Riki washed his hands and then dried them thoroughly with a towel. Then the unthinkable happened, Riki unbuttoned Light's shirt and then picked up a pair of scissors and began to cut off the rest, starting with the sleeves, since the normal way could not be done with Light restrained.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Removing your clothes," Riki simply said.

Light protested, but Riki ignored him.

Once Light's shirt was in pieces, Riki removed it. He did the same with his white undershirt until Light was exposed from the waist up. The teen was meticulous, neat, and threw each shred of cloth into a trash bin. "You'll be provided with new clothes once the evaluation has concluded," Riki said.

Once Riki got to Light's pants and began to unbuckle his belt, Light began to struggle violently. "Hey, no! Stop that! Why are you stripping me? What the hell goes on during these evaluations?"

Riki stopped, looked at Light. The young man looked serious. "Please, Detective, don't be troublesome. This is necessary. I must know more about you before you can be _Questioned_ by my Mistress."

"Troublesome? Are all those other people _troublesome_ —as you snip off fingers and toes, slice off body parts, take limbs and organs, to sell on the black market? If I refuse to answer your questions, will you kill me, too?"

Riki looked at him strange, and then laughed. "I'm afraid you're under a misconception, Detective. They are not being tortured, they are being _evaluated_. They're not being harmed, I assure you. Despite outward appearances, this is not a torture dungeon, per se, we do things quite differently here."

Riki briefly explained where Light was in basic terms, and Light's eyes widened. He had heard about these kinds of places mostly from reading other detective reports after they interrogated survivors.

Light gasped, he definitely did not want to be here.

"With slightly more refinement," Riki then said. "I am my Mistress's Prime Assistant," he repeated. "I report directly to her and I have reign to conduct evaluations as I see fit and to do what must be done. My Mistress must have all the pertinent details with a medical evaluation before she conducts her questioning. I am preparing you for _her_."

"You're too young to be a doctor, what's your medical background?"

Riki told Light his qualifications. His youth was deceiving, but Light was still not convinced.

"The Yukaza are misunderstood," the young man said. "We are not a bunch of barbarians as the Japanese police have lead the general public to believe. We're members of a sophisticated and organized serial of syndicates working with other branches, but not restricted by regulatory red tape like political branches of government. We do what must be done. That is the main problem with current societies, too many restricted rules to stop progress. Nazi Germany had so many successes because they were not regulated by rules."

"Over six million people died because of their experiments," Light said factually.

"True, but look at everything society has learned and benefited from Nazism since then? And we still use a lot of what the German's discovered with the sacrifices of all those that were killed, all in the name of science. I don't judge, I merely get the results that my Mistress wishes."

Riki continued to undress Light. Light's belt buckle was already undone and his pants open. Light thrashed around to give Riki issue to finish his task. The young man sighed annoyed. "You're being troublesome, Detective. I'm afraid that won't do."

With a hard slap to Light's stomach with the palm of his hand, Riki delivered a sharp, stinging pain. After that, Riki finished unzipping him. Then he systematically cut each pant leg down the side and removed Light's belt until the young man was able to undress Light completely, rolling them up and placing them in the trash.

Light only had his jockey's remaining. Once again, told new clothes will be furnished after the evaluation.

Riki then removed the strap around Light's inner leg thigh for his baton, putting it aside.

"Where's my baton and gun?" Light demanded, then looked at his wrist. "And where is my watch?" It was very important. It had the piece of the Death Note inside. He didn't bother to inquire about his cell phone. All he had in his phone were mostly work contacts and a few personal numbers, but everything could be easily replaced. And it was password protected. However, if they managed to crack it, a lot of people could be in jeopardy.

"Your gun and baton were retrieved, but I'm unaware of your watch; I'll inquire," Riki said.

The young man began to conduct a thorough evaluation of Light's entire body, examining muscle tone like a normal physician; any scars, abnormalities, and anything else. He even used a tool to pitch different parts of Light's body to measure fat content, adding data into a mini iPad. He already seemed to know Light's entire medical history, explaining the Yukaza had hacked that branch of the NPA database months before. Light had no diseases or other medical issues of note.

"You appear to be very healthy, Detective. And you have no unseemly body hair, good. The Mistress hates body hair. It distracts from the natural beauty of the soul within. You seem to have plenty of hair on your head, and it is well taken care. But body hair is a cover for insecurities much like beards and moustaches." Riki turned Light's head from side to side, seemingly looking at bone structure or something else. "You have a day and half growth on your face, that will not do. You need a shave, Detective. My Mistress likes the clean look."

"I would prefer that a woman do this examination."

Riki cocked his head. "Your words are filled with prejudice. Males do males and females do females here. It's the way of things. It's also out of respect for privacy, if such a thing can be granted in this trade. You will have to endure it. I will try to be gentle. Why? Are you afraid to have a male touch you?"

"I'm not comfortable with it, no. Unless it's my regular doctor."

"It'll be over in no time. Either enjoy it or hate it. It makes no difference to me. I have a job to do."

Riki then caressed a hand down Light's chest and stomach. It didn't appear to be anything sexual, more like part of his evaluation. He pressed down on Light's stomach as if to test buoyancy. Riki looked pleased. Light knew he had a nice set of abs. They weren't as honed as some officer's he'd seen at the gym, but he didn't need bulkiness.

Then Riki went south.

"Don't touch me there!" Light demanded. "Get your hands away from there!"

"Rest assured, Detective, I'm older than I look. Japan's age of consent is thirteen, and I am nineteen, but I know, I look much younger. Trust me, I am no child; parish that. I began with my Mistress when I was seven years old. You wouldn't believe what I've seen. It's quite disturbing. But in the age we live in, it's unconscionably normal."

"I'm not one of them, and I don't approve of it, and Kira kills people who engage in acts of such depravity." He suddenly realized his mistake, using himself and Kira in the same sentence. He swore mentally, hoping Riki didn't catch on to his error. But then realized, why would Riki make the connection?

Riki chuckled. "I never said you were, Detective. But please remember where you are, and that I am only doing my job. The evaluation shouldn't take more than an hour or so, as I've said, and only if you are cooperative. If you become disagreeable, I will have to punish you; I have the authority. But as you may not be used to it, it may feel very discomforting at first…"

He then cut Light's jockey's off him.

Light didn't thrash around this time as the scissors were too close to his crotch. Riki may accidentally cut him. Riki trashed Light's jockey's and then placed the scissors back on the medical trolley.

Naked, Light felt the chill of the medical table. He then observed Riki pick up a tube of lubricate oil that had been the same trolley of the scissors and lathered his hands with it, rubbing it between his fingers, basically making his hands slippery and supple.

Light blinked fast, hope his immediate thought was wrong. "What're you going to do?"

"A basic evaluation, I must be accurate. You can either enjoy this or hate it."

"No! You can't do that! I don't want you doing that!… _Oh, my, god!_ "

Riki reached out. Light's hands clenched tightly. Riki was doing something only Misa would do. He trembled, his eyes teared up. This was tantalum to rape. But Riki's hands were warm from the oil and the sensation. And like it or not, it caused an unexpected reaction. Light grit his teeth with the release, and when it was over, he trembled and shivered from the unbelievably of it. He couldn't believe what had just happened, and why so quickly.

Light exhaled hot breath.

Riki smirked, amused. "It's not entirely unexpected," he remarked. "This usually stems from sexual frustration. It has nothing to do with the liking of one's own gender. When was the last time you had relations, Detective? Are you a virgin? You are three months shy of your twenty-first birthday. Doing this will not take away your virginity, however. Or, are the questions too personal?"

Light looked down at what just happened, he felt shellshocked. Riki wiped his hands with a towel, then cleaned up.

Light rested his head back. "That was so…wrong," he said. "Is this some sort of nightmare?" _How the hell could something like this happen? All this was supposed to be was some simple video surveillance job._

Riki chuckled. Light looked back down. Riki took some sort of metal measuring stick off the medical tray with white tiny notches on it and measured Light fully. "Yes, quite agreeable," he said. "My Mistress will be pleased with you. You're above average, too."

The complement saved nothing from the indignity of the situation.

Light knew as a detective, he would witness some of the worse humanity had to offer, and he had killed many with the Death Note, but this was beyond supplication. _I'm going to kill you with the Death Note, you little shit! The moment it is back in my hands and I have your full name, you're dead!_

"Is this what you meant by an _Evaluation_?" Light said angrily. "Is this what's happening to all those other people? Are they being treated like this? You are one sick pervert!"

Riki chuckled. "Adults, Detective, do weird things. But what I did was not one of them, and in fact, you reacted normally. According to your profile, you are in a relationship with the actress Misa Amane. I'm in a trade where getting information is key, but by some unorthodox ways, much like certain interrogation methods. And there are many different avenues to make a person compliant, Detective. There are several levels of _Questioning_. Those other people remain defiant. They were sent back for further evaluation. Unless you're docile enough, you will never see my Mistress. She relies on Evaluators to meek people, so her job is not difficult. There is pleasure, and then there is pleasure with pain. We Evaluators can deliver both with equal deliverance. Like I said, My Mistress is a very busy woman. But she is not a dominatrix as our trade may infer, that is left to adult movies to capitulate."

Light noticed the young man was well spoken and educated. The myth that those involved in the sex trade only followed orders and were not intelligent was obviously a much misguided myth.

Riki went around the other side of the table, picked up a controller that hung from a cord, and moved the lower half of the table up. Light's legs bent, and he was then put in a position similar to when a woman was in labour. Rolling another medical trolley over, Riki revealed more tools of the trade under a white sheet.

For his police foundations, Light had to endure some medical exams he didn't like, but it was necessary for his records, testing for cancers or other ailments. Light didn't like the feeling when the doctor touched him in certain places, but he endured it. But if Riki already had his medical records, why was this necessary?

Riki picked up the lube again and squirted it on to his fingers.

"No…" Light pleaded.

"As I said, I need to conduct a thorough evaluation of you and to gather detail information for my Mistress. Your NPA records are complete, but things always change. She insists on no surprises. If you wish, you can think of this as a simple examination of your prostate glade. Seeing how powerful your previous reaction was, this could help you further. You see, if sperm builds up within the ejaculatory duct it can form an uncomfortable obstruction which can place pressure on the pelvis and may cause infertility, if not treated. Most of the time, the body dissolves it on its own when the sperm enters the testicles. Sometimes, it does not, and a doctor is required. So, if you think about it, I am helping you. If you feel uncomfortable, please let me know."

"I feel uncomfortable now," Light said.

Riki ignored him.

Riki stepped closer and proceeded. Light hissed, and fought Riki's attempts, clenching tightly. "Please, Detective, try and relax, I know what I'm doing. This can either be enjoyable or very discomforting, your choice."

The prostate gland was the male sex organ that if rubbed could produce a massive reaction. Once again, Light's reaction was similar to the last. Light jerked his head back, letting out a long but silenced wide open mouth exhale.

"See, it was quite enjoyable, wasn't it, Detective?" Light trembled again. "Very good, you reacted exactly as I had hoped. No signs of issues. But you do seem to be reacting more favourably to this examination than most people. What is your sexual orientation, if you don't mind me asking?"

Light didn't answer the question. _When the opportunity arises, I'm going to kill you!_

"Misa Amane is…" he started to say.

"Your girlfriend," Riki finished. "But that means very little these days. I won't judge. Sometimes, people don't even know themselves until later in life despite everything to the contrary. They even deny it."

Admittedly, Misa didn't stimulate him mentally or physically. She was an idiot. But he wasn't prepared for this kind of stimulation to arouse him this much. He felt violated.

Riki again wiped his hands with a towel.

" _You damn bastard!_ " Light said breathlessly. " _I'm going to kill you! That was rape!_ "

"Call it what you wish. I don't care. I performed a job and your reaction to it was favourable for my report."

Riki pulled the first medical trolley over. "But if I told you how many times people have threatened me after their evaluations, I could fill a small swimming pool with coins. You seem to be in excellent health, Detective, and quite ready for Questioning. My Mistress will have no trouble with you. You passed. But there is still more to do."

Riki retrieved the shaving cream bottle and then lathered up Light's cheeks and chin, then with skill and mastery, he used the barber's blade and proceeded to shave Light until his face was smooth. He also shaved other places.

"I will inform my Mistress that you are ready—at her convenience, of course." Riki gave Light an innocent smile, as if what he just did was nothing but a simple day at the office. To Riki, it was probably was. "When she is ready, I will then return and collect you. In the meantime, rest up, Detective. There's much more to come."

He smiled again and then turned and left the room, leaving Light restrained to the table.

_To be continued..._


	6. The Mistress Of The Den

Riki made his way to his Mistress's private chambers, the place where she conducted her most extensive work.

Her job was to question all those with vital information the Yukaza wished to know. She did so on authority of the Master of this facility, for whom she reported to.

Riki was her most loyal subordinate and he reported to _her_ directly. After he had conducted his evaluations, he sent them directly to her. All details about a person were brought before her first. She wanted no surprises and did not want any difficulties. The Master demanded results from her questioning sessions.

He had completed Light Yagami's evaluation and the detective had passed with flying colours, more so than Riki had originally surmised. He knew his Mistress will be pleased with the results.

He entered a reception room similar the other where he had collected Yagami, pulling back a red curtain. A girl also waited in the corner next to an old style telephone in this room.

With a mere look, Riki told the girl to inform the Mistress that he was here. She picked up the phone, said a few words, and then hung up. He was told the Mistress would see him. Riki bowed a respected thank-you, and then entered another curtain, that opened up to an elongated corridor with painted purple walls—the Mistress's favourite colour—and stopped at the set of double doors at the end.

He heard the scream of a man begging for mercy, but it didn't bother him. He had heard screams like this before, screams of that nature was natural here.

He knocked, waited, and then entered. This was the foray which lead to his Mistress's private den.

Inside, several restraining tables and chairs were set up, three slots were occupied. There were eight slots in total.

Riki had never seen all of them used at once. The most he had seen was five occupied at a single time. What he observed here, was not an evaluation—but it was a submission of another kind.

An Evaluator had conducted an initial evaluation, but if a person became exceedingly troublesome while the Mistress questioned them, then they were sent back to be re-evaluated. If the person continued to be troublesome, then they were sent here for further submission.

Muffled screams came from the man he had heard through the doors, with the man's mouth filled with a ball strap; an instrument of the trade. He was strapped to one of the tables, and with the Foray Attendant, was engaged in a punishment suited for the crime he had committed. This sort of punishment was mainly reserved for lairs, and it was the most harsh of all. He had obviously lied to the Mistress.

On another table, a man was attached to electrodes secured to his nipples and other sensitive places. He also wore a ball strap in his mouth to muffle his screams.

In the final occupied slot—another man was attached to chains and was also being punished in a similar way as the second, but his punishment was much more intense with a tightened band around his genitals, and an object inserted elsewhere sensitive. It was said that if an individual cannot release, their insides could explode and cause internal damage to the point of eventual death.

This was the torture area, the last chance. Where submission was had or else.

Riki noticed that it was mostly men that defied the Mistress. Women only needed one re-evaluation to submit to her questioning. What happened after they where questioned, Riki didn't know, nor was it his concern.

Men and women sent here were normally accused of being informants, or were from other rival gangs, or people the Master just wanted punished for defiance. In his time, Riki had seen close to a hundred people sent to the Mistress for questioning and he had evaluated nearly a quarter of them.

Apart from this place, the Master had his own private domain. He rarely visited the Den, and unless something was pertinent for him to know, he didn't care. He allowed the Mistress to do what she pleased. But, he wanted results. And the Mistress never failed.

Walking ahead, Riki pulled back a set of purple curtains that lead to a separate area, apart from the foray, or torture area, where another set of double doors stood. He knocked once, announced himself, heard "Come in", and then let himself in. Inside, stood the Mistress: a sensual-looking woman, tall, with long flowing black hair, and wearing a beautiful and colourful, flowery Kimono, her attire of choice when conducting her _Questioning_.

The room was lavishly decorated in purples and dark tones, with a padded table at its centre, much like one would find in a massage parlour only tools of her special trade. Someone was currently secured to the table being questioned—a man. The Mistress was lighting a scented candle as Riki entered. He took a moment to sniff the lovely aroma of lavender and rosemary.

Candles were also one of her tools to get answers, dripping hot wax onto very sensitive parts of the body.

"Welcome, my boy," she said sweetly, and smiled just as lovely.

"I bring good news, Mistress," he spoke. "The NPA detective is ready. In fact, he has been _more than_ compliant." He smirked. "Despite a few minor protests, and a couple of verbal threatens to my life, not the first I have received, he became docile. In fact, he acted like a virgin. I suspect he may not be entirely straight."

The Mistress laughed. "That's amusing," she said. "Then I know the perfect method in which to entice him to talk."

She gestured to the man now laying on the table and tied up in a very compromising position, much like Riki had left Detective Yagami in, and he saw the explicit and special tools of her speciality being used on him, inserted into places where no man wished anything to be placed, no straight man, that is; along with hot burning wax droplets all over his body. He also had a ball strap in his mouth. Riki heard whimpering.

Riki asked who the man was.

The Mistress replied, "He wished to sell information about the possible real identity of Kira, whom he claimed was human, with a special power of his own making; what lunacy. The Master wanted to know what the man knew, so he was sent to me. But he turned out to be nothing more than a trickster. His informant was killed, and his tongue removed, as a message to others to stay loyal."

Riki nodded. "A wise decision by the Master," he said.

Riki then recited Light Yagami's profile and the Mistress was pleased in what she heard. When ehe had heard they had captured an NPA detective it was no big deal, but when she saw how young and handsome he was, she became excited and wanted to question him herself. She knew she could get more favourable results.

She told Riki to bring Light Yagami to her, after he completed a _full evaluation_ , and have someone remove this man from her private chambers. He was to be punished by the Foray Attendant—" _The worse punishment imaginable_ ", she said. Then to be executed, orders from the Master.

Riki nodded, and then left.

x x x

Light Yagami felt undignified, but he walked under his own power dressed in a white medical gown that Riki had given him. He was handcuffed and told if he attempted to escape, he would be punished. He agreed to be civil. Besides, he didn't know where he was or had knowledge of how to get out. If the corridors he had been taken through were an indication, a person could he lost down here for a very long time.

The two thugs from before walked behind him with Riki escorting them. The Mistress was informed that Light Yagami was ready. He had also been bathed after Riki returned to the evaluation room, and then lightly sprinkled in lavender scent, the Mistress's favourite fragrance.

In following Riki, they entered a foray, and a torture chamber of sorts, Light observed, with two rows of tables and chairs, with devices of the sex trade.

Here Light halted in his tracks.

To his right, a man was crying, begging for mercy, secured to a table, in a most uncompromising position, with a ball strap in his mouth to mask his cries. He was chained and was being tortured by a Foray Attendant in a most gruesome way. Light knew the term, but it was horrible to look at. Some used it as a form of extreme torture, yet some used it for a form of pleasure. As far as he was considered, it was beyond human. Some things some people did to one another was disgusting! Especially with their hands that could cause massive hemorrhage bleeding.

Light folded and vomited, sickened, and collapsed to his knees, weakened by the ghastly sight of what he saw.

Riki took a step back, not wanting his boots dirty. "Your reaction is understandable, Detective. And I would be surprised if it were not. You are obviously not used to witnessing such a graphic scene." Riki extended a hand; the man begged for the torture to end. "This man was caught lying to the Mistress. He claimed to have information whom he wanted to sell to an NPA informant, who also doubled as a Kira Task Force informant, which the Master developed an interest. But when the Mistress questioned him, he admitted he had lied. And this is his punishment. You can either experience pleasure or pain here, Detective. This man is now experiencing the worse. Lying is a crime most heinous in the Dragon Sect of the Yukaza."

_The informant, Light recalled. The same who claimed to have information on the real identity of Kira? Who got in contract with L's informant KF4? And who got KF4 murdered with his tongue cut out? This is that man?_

Light wiped his face with a sleeve and then stood. The initial shock of seeing the graphic scene was over. "What a horrible way to be punished even in this place," he said. "He'll never be the same."

"Trust me, Detective. He won't live long enough to care, the Mistress's orders." Riki then waved the company to the end of the foray.

Light noticed there were eight torture slots, but only one was being used at the moment. He wondered how many others had been tortured in the same manner?

If Riki's methods were any indication, what the man was experiencing was far more extreme than what Riki did to Light during his evaluation.

Thoughts raced through Light's mind: What if he couldn't answer this Mistress's questions? What if he didn't know the answers to her questions, and would he be his punished in a similar manner for refusal? And what if she didn't believe him? But he couldn't tell them anything. He had taken an oath and it was important to him.

Under stress, would he reveal classified information about the NPA and other law enforcement parties just to save his own life? Would they use injected drugs to make him talk or was torturing people by using unusual forms of "persuasion" their main method?

For the first time in his life, he wished Misa was by his side—and _with_ the Death Note.

_To be continued..._


	7. What A Mistress Does Best

Riki led Light through a purple curtain at the end of the torture chamber, then to a set of double doors.

He knocked and announced himself, then opened the Mistress's chamber door in gallant form. The two men that followed them then left as soon as Riki and Light entered, shutting he door behind them.

She had her back turned towards them wearing a beautifully flowered kimono, her long dark hair cascaded down below her shoulder blades. She was as tall as Light. Light could already see she was a lovely woman and he hadn't yet seen her face. But when she turned around, he gasped. She was nearly the spitting image of Kiyomi Takada, but an older version.

The shock was only momentary, this was not his university sweetheart.

She turned and smiled, looking him over. "Ah, such a handsome devil," she said flirtingly, spreading her arms out wide, her kimono outstretched like a pair of wings. "When I was first told about you, I never imagined you would be so good looking. And you have a boyish face, that's very appealing to me."

Light didn't say anything. He was a prisoner, why would he thank his jailer?

Light gave a quick glance around. Was this a torture room? It was a large room and decorated in heavy purples with draped curtains, sensed candles and sensual lighting. There with a padded table in the centre. There were also closed cabinets, no doubt containing her tools of trade. But nothing showed him what to expect. Everything was pristine, not like what he imagined. It looked like a room of enjoyment, not of torture. The room Riki took him to for his evaluation had also been very clean and proper.

"Light Yagami, correct? My name is Mistress Tigressa. Welcome to my Den of Pleasure."

"More like a Den of Horrors—where you're tortured until all resistance bleeds out of your body," Light retorted harshly.

Riki eyed him with a hard stare, but Light stood firm. Mistress Tigressa put up a hand, as if to chide Riki but not Light. Riki blinked surprised. Then Riki bowed compliant and in respect of his Mistress's judgement, he took a step back.

"So, where are all the whips and chains most commonly seen within dungeons of this sort? I've seen pictures and this looks more like a massage parlour."

"You watch too many movies that drive misconceptions, Detective," she replied, then smiled and stepped forward. "I hear that you are or were a detective with the National Police Agency, that is fascinating," she added with intrigue. "You must have a lot of interesting stories to tell. Your experiences, not your secrets. I sometimes find it interesting to know more about a person before I question them. It helps me to understand them more. I wonder if you'll tell me some interesting stories while you're here?"

"I wouldn't bet on it. I'm sworn to secrecy with the information I know on police matters. I've been through some of the most extreme interrogation sessions the NPA is known to implore and I just went through a rigorous session with your Imp here. I'm strong willed. You won't break me, no matter what you do to me." He looked at both her and Riki collectively. "Your _little pet_ may have exposed me to things I had never experienced before, but now I'm prepared for what you can throw at me."

Riki's eyes widened, as if to say: "How dare you speak to the Mistress like that!"

Mistress Tigressa laughed. "How very brash," she said causally, "but, very well then, challenge accepted." She extended an open hand to Riki. "My _little pet_ , as you call him, will stay and observe me while I work on you. Let's see how strong willed you really are, Detective Light Yagami of the NPA. Riki still has much to learn."

"I enjoy watching you work, Mistress Tigressa," Riki said with a large smirk.

_Did I overplay my hand? Did they already have something planned for me? Stay strong._

"Riki told me how you reacted to his evaluation. You acted much like a virgin, enjoying the pleasures of someone who enjoys male companionship. Suffice it to say, he always gets the best results."

Riki smiled.

Light sneered, snapped at look at Riki. Riki's smile quickly vanished as Light eyed him with dagger eyes, thoughts of bloody murder. "You lying son of a bitch! If it wasn't for my situation, I would kill you! What you did to me was perverse—he raped me—using techniques to get the reaction _he_ wanted. My body responded like anyone else's would! Don't read anymore into that."

"Enough!" Mistress Tigressa demanded, putting up a hand. She looked unhappy. "I normally have those who anger and defy me punished much like the man you saw outside in the foray, those who refuse me the answers I desire. But you interest me, Light Yagami. So, I will forgive your arrogance this time. But be warned. If you speak back to me again, you will be punished."

Light eyed her. "Do your worst! I will not betray the NPA, any of its affiliates, or any other law enforcement agencies. I took an oath and I stand by it, even at my death. Riki educated me on what those who defy you get. So, let's make a suitable agreement without me having to compromise my morals."

He needed to stay strong, defiant. The worse thing he could do was appear weak. That was how you handled these people. The Yukaza saw weakness as a crutch. He was Kira, after all.

Mistress Tigressa laughed again. "Morals? I'm afraid no bargains will be had here. You have no idea what you're in store for my handsome, young devil. Keep your brashness, you'll need all your willpower. You'll soon lose it and more when I get through with you. Riki—you can prepare him for _Questioning_ now."

"Yes, Mistress," and Riki grabbed Light, and shoved him to the massage table.

Riki stripped him. Light's handcuffs were removed and he was strapped stomach down onto the massage table with velcro straps around his wrists and ankles, he couldn't move. The leather of the table felt chilly, the room itself felt cold, and the scent of the candles induced a conflict in the mind—as if they coaxed him to relax like a drug.

Tigressa caressed a finger along the nap of Light's back from shoulder to stern, the sensation caused Light to shiver. She ended by caressing his rear butt cheeks which made him jerk with surprise. "Despite Riki's evaluation, you're still very tender. Don't be so nervous. The prostate gland is the male sexual organ, so it's only natural for a male to get excited when it's properly stimulated—most thoroughly enjoy it."

Light growled, " _I'm not—!_ " The very inkling of the notion angered him.

He was brought up in a good, loving family. They even went to church on Sundays when he was a child. Those weekly visits fell out of practice when they moved away from their old neighbourhood and into their townhouse when his father became Superintendent of the NPA. Light still believed in a higher being, but he was Kira—a god in his own rite with the Death Note. There were gods of death, Ryuk was proof of that. So, if Ryuk existed, then there had to be more powerful beings in the universe.

"What Riki did to me was testament to rape. I was strapped down! How else would you think I would react?"

Light and Tigressa shared eye contact. She shrugged. "To each their own. Pleasure is pleasure, no matter where it comes from and by whom it is given. What feels good, feels good." She leaned in close, cupping Light's smooth chin. "However, I think you need to be more honest with yourself. I assure you, you'll soon come to realize the raptures of both pleasure and pain while you're here. You'll answer my questions, Detective, or you'll be punished. It's as simple as that."

"I won't betray anyone, I took an oath! Even if you torture me in this sadomasochist dungeon, I'll never talk!"

"Oaths like rules are designed to be broken, even someone's moral code." She wiggled a finger to Riki and he came over. Then he began to get undressed, until he wore nothing but a deep blue string speedo thong that left little to the imagination. Riki crawled up onto the table and crouched between Light's legs.

"What's he doing?" Light demanded. He tried to twist his head to see, but it wasn't enough.

All of sudden, Riki did the unthinkable. Light felt his butt cheeks separate, and then Riki's tongue—

" _Oh my god!_ "

Light's teeth clenched in resistance, his eyes shut. But then they began to tear up and he exhaled softly, unable to fight the feeling anymore. The sensation unexpectedly felt very good, he had never felt anything like it.

When Light was with Misa, he used a similar technique to get her excited. But _he_ had never been touched there before. Misa had offered, but he flat out refused. He admitted mentally, it was quite pleasurable.

Suddenly, he grunted in god-awful pain as he felt the stinging sensation of a multi-faceted string whip strike his back hard.

In the mere moments his eyes were closed, his mind distracted by what Riki was doing, Mistress Tigressa had retrieved the string whip from somewhere. He flung his eyes open and growled angrily, looking at her.

What Riki had done felt good, what she had done caused him pain.

"That was pain, Detective Yagami," she said.

Suddenly, he felt Riki continue for a good thirty-seconds, and the pleasure returned, and he gasped, his eyes glazing over. Then Tigressa whipped him again even harder than the last. Light hissed. And the stinging pain returned with a vengeance. His hands clenched into fists as he dealt with the hurt.

"Do you feel the difference, Detective? The separation between pleasure and pain?" He nodded, his head bobbing up and down. The whip felt like razor shards on his back. "And that was but a sample of what you can expect if you don't answer me honestly."

Tigressa then asked him a series of questions, but Light refused to answer. He told her that had felt worse agony and pain—(albeit psychological when he was dealing with L)—and said for her to do her worse. He said he could resist her.

Riki continued; she whipped him—each delivering switch-ups of pleasure and pain.

When that was unsuccessful, Light wondered if he would need to be removed for re-evaluation. Riki apologized his failing, believing Light had been properly prepared for her. He had only failed twice, he said, but that was much earlier on when he first began as an Evaluator. He was her Prime Assistant, and he knew this shouldn't have occurred.

Taking Riki aside, Tigressa spoke to him. Light watched them. Riki nodded after a brief, quiet converse. She was not angry. To Light, it looked like they were forming a new game plan. He had resisted their first attempt to get him to talk through unorthodox stimulation—obviously common to this place. Now he knew, the second wave was about to begin.

Riki got back on the table and between Light's legs and he leaned over Light's back, pressing himself down, his hands settled on either side of Light's torso, and then secured his arms underneath Light's armpits like a vice to hold him down. Light knew what was coming and he protested. "No! Please! Don't do that!"—and all of sudden, he felt Riki presence…

Light exhaled out with shock and unexpected elation. Riki had not even used any lotion, but it had not been needed.

Almost immediately, the incredible sensation stimulated Light far beyond he expected. But he felt there was no emotion from Riki, everything was methodic, as if he was only going through the motions. It was more than enough to make Light groan.

But then Riki bit him, his teeth dug deep into his skin like a dog would clamp onto an attacker.

Light cried out, swore, and thrashed around, trying to throw Riki off. But Riki held on tight and began the 'pleasure aspect' again. But the pleasure didn't return like it had before and Light demanded Riki get off him. Riki bit him twice more and Light cried out.

Love bites that felt more as if they came from a vampire.

Tigressa asked him the same questions as before, as the pleasure/pain two-fold went on. But Light refused to give in. The level of pleasure increased dramatically, but so did the pain. And now Light felt blood streaming down is body from each bite.

_Is this what I can expect if I continue to refuse to answer her questions? And how more intense will it get?_

Tigressa waved a hand and Riki stopped, getting off Light. Riki was not wearing his speedo.

Was Riki doing this for his Mistress? Was he allowed to feel pleasure or was it all just part of the job? He more than likely didn't want to look weak and was told he wasn't to show emotion in front of the person he was torturing. If he enjoyed himself, it would mean a sign that he was weak and not delivering the maximum amount of pleasure/pain ratio.

Tigressa decided they had to try something else.

x x x

Sai Yahama wondered what happened to the detective he had brought in. The last thing he recalled was, Riki, Mistress Tigressa's Prime Assistant, and two thugs, had taken Light Yagami for his "Evaluation". He knew what the meant and the thought of it made him shiver. He had never experienced an "Evaluation", but he had seen the end result of anyone who defied Tigressa. The _Den/Foray Attendants_ ruined them for life. They did unspeakable things to people.

He was in the storage room where he had first brought the detective.

Sai often enjoyed some solitude here, but on this occasion he was being reflective. He looked at his phone with a picture of him and Hyde. They had been friends since childhood and joined the Yukaza together, climbed the ranks. In the picture, they were both smiling and laughing at something, he couldn't remember. It had only been taken recently.

He then flipped through a series of pictures and the more he saw his friend, the more Sai became angry.

"That damn bastard murdered you with my own gun! How the hell could that happen?" he said about Light Yagami. He told himself he should have been more careful, but Hyde had been careless and it had cost him his life. They had been involved in worse scraps than that. This time, however, Hyde's luck ran out. "How did a rookie kill you, Hyde? If I had my way, he'd already be dead. But, at least, I have some conciliation. I can only imagine what the Mistress is doing to him right now. He'll beg to tell her everything."

Just then, Nazareth appeared at the open door way. He wasn't a big talker, but when he did, people listened and obeyed. He was the Yukaza's top enforcer. "Sai, we have a job to do—deposal."

Sai jumped down off a crate and went to him, putting away his phone. "Who is it?"

"Some guy in the torture area. Mistress Tigressa really did a number on him, or maybe it was one of her Attendants? Either way, we've been ordered to put a bullet in him."

Sai felt queasy. Whatever the guy went through, it probably wasn't of a pleasurable note.

A few minutes later, Sai and Naz entered the torture area—the place where so much activity took place; eight tables and chairs awaiting the tortured. They saw an Attendant dressed in his skimpy leather attire, standing next to his slot, and appeared like he had had been waiting for them to relieve him.

Sai put a hand to his nose. The place smelled of vomit, body odour, and something else. The Attendant gestured to a man laying naked and cowering on the floor. Sai could see blood pooling around the man body coming from somewhere behind him.

The Attendant then left, his job done, and Sai and Naz were left alone with this guy to carry out his execution as ordered.

The man was folded in like an infant, clutching his body, and muttering incoherently. He looked to be shellshocked, his eyes wide open. Sai leaned in close, and he could swear the man was muttering something: " _Please kill me, I want to die; please kill me, I want to die,_ " he said repeatedly.

Naz spent no time waiting and went down to grab the man, but then the man, if on instinct, screamed, and tried to scamper away, as if the grim reaper had come for him. He then cried out, " _It hurts! It hurts!_ " with tears streaming down his face. Suddenly, the man's bowels released themselves, no control, and Sai plugged his nose again. Naz took a step back, not waiting to get his boots dirty.

"You weren't kidding when you said they did a number on him," Sai said, still plugging his nose. Sai had heard about the technique when realization struck him, what the Attendant had actually done to the man. But he had never seen nor did he want to see it demonstrated. If he recalled, he it had to do with a fist—and the mere thought grossed him out. Some people found it pleasurable, others didn't. "I kind of feel sorry for the poor guy. Maybe we should put him out his misery right now?" He unholstered his gun. "I'll do him like I did that NPA informant, but he doesn't need his tongue cut out."

Sai pointed and fired at the man's head, an instant kill. The man died, but Sai could swear he saw a smile on the man's face.

Suddenly, a back door swung open and the purple curtain at the end of the torture chamber pulled back angrily; Mistress Tigress emerged. "What the hell is going on here?" She saw the scene, Sai with his gun outstretched. "You idiots! Don't fire your guns in here! There is a lot of sensitive equipment!"

She then demanded to know why they killed the man here and not somewhere else?

"I, ah, felt sorry for the guy, Mistress Tigressa; I'm sorry," Sai said with a pang of regret. He told her what they'd witnessed. "I thought it was best to put him out of his misery right here."

"He wouldn't go quietly," Naz further explained. "It will be easier to remove now."

"You have interrupted my questioning of the Detective!" she said angrily. "Go away now!"

She turned to walk away. For a fleeting moment, both Sai and Naz saw through the open curtain and door of the interior of Mistress Tigressa's private chambers and saw the young detective. He was in a very compromising position on his back with his legs up in the air, fully restrained with straps. Riki was also in the room. They were in the middle of a _Questioning_ session.

The door slammed shut with an intensity that exhibited anger and frustration.

"Do you think the detective will live?" Sai asked Naz. "The way he was positioned and restrained, that didn't look very comfortable."

"It's not supposed to be comfortable," Naz replied. "He's in there to be interrogated for information, she calls it 'Questioning'. But we both know its true name. This is Mistress Tigressa's way. As long as she gets results, the Master doesn't care. And from what I hear, the detective likes it." He smirked crookedly.

"Really? Anything that floats your boat, eh?" Sai shrugged. "But not me, women and I have a strict contract."

Naz shrugged his shoulders uncaring, then went over, avoided what by-products from the dead man he could, lifted him over his shoulders, and carried the body out of the torture area for disposal. Sai followed.

_To be continued..._


	8. Light Yagami's Unbreakable Oath

Tigressa re-entered her private chambers, slamming the door behind her. She was angry.

Light Yagami was on his back, his legs in the air tied to ropes and secured with velcro. He had been rotated from his back—with much reluctance and resistance. He fought, but Riki had over powered him. The nineteenth year old was much stronger than he looked. Light was now secured to the table with a tight restraint across his stomach so he couldn't wiggle about. His arms were stretched above his head and his legs were raised like that of a woman giving birth. Light also had a ball gag in his mouth.

Riki awaited instructions from his Mistress, as Tigressa returned to the table.

"You're not one to yield easily, Detective. I don't know if you really are as loyal as you say, or you're just being exceptionally stubborn. Or perhaps, you really do like this? You were brought to us under the impression, according to your profile that you were straight. Now I see that may not entirely be the case. We normally use methods that implore the opposite of a person's sexual orientation to get the most immediate results—a person will talk with the threat of being tortured with methods against their natural grain. However, you've surprised me. You're enjoying my methods far too much." She patted Light's stomach, almost with admiration. Then chuckled, calm. "If you enjoy this, then I'll give you exactly what you want, Detective. And more than you can handle. We don't judge here."

He huffed out a breath through the ball gag, shouting defensively against what she was suggesting.

His body and hair were saturated in sweat and his skin was beet red from all the exertion. His heart beating fast. Even Riki was sweating. But he had been doing most of the work. Tigressa had directed him and he obeyed.

She continued, "You still refuse to answer any of my questions. Normally, I would send you back for re-evaluation, but you're more exceptional than any one else I've questioned. You're my first detective. From your profile, you're involved with the Kira Case, for which my Master is very interested in. He wants to know what you know—and if _you_ know who Kira _may_ be? The police have more information on his supernatural powers than the general public. So, instead of sending you back, I'm going to continue to work on you—until you break." She leaned in very close to Light's face. "And you will break, Detective! No one has ever exited my chambers the same as when they left."

With a nod, Riki opened up a hidden compartment underneath the table and pulled out a large box. It looked like a fisherman's tackle, and once opened, it had layers of trays. He placed it on a trolley table and rolled it over to Tigressa. The open lid blocked Light's view.

They had been working on him for more than an hour and he wondered how much more could he take?

x x x

Light awoke. It had felt like forever. During his torture session, he must have fallen unconscious.

He opened his eyes slowly, a brightness hitting them, and despite what he remembered, what he had gone through inside Tigressa's private chambers, he felt no pain. Was he drugged? Nothing really hurt, except for his pride. Then he turned his head and found that his right arm was attached to an IV drip with a pole and machine. It was probably morphine with nutrients and vitamins to help him regain his strength.

They had worked on him pretty hard, but he had not relented. But he had not revealed anything to his immediate knowledge. Tigressa had asked for classified information about the NPA. When he refused, she punished him. When she asked again, and he refused a second time, a worse punishment was given. When she asked about information about Kira, because the Yukaza knew he worked on the Kira Task Force, he refused again.

He knew more about Kira than anyone, being Kira.

_The Den must be part of a larger underground complex?_ Tigressa did things to him that were unthinkable to do to another human being, and that sodomite Riki was just as bad. He vowed that when he got his watch back, those two would be the first to die—their names written on the piece of the Death Note—once he learned their names, knowing the Yukaza now used aliases to hide real identities.

He looked around and found himself in a large bedroom chamber filled with purples, lavenders and pinks, definitely a woman's room, and adored with frescos of beautiful landscapes, seductive furniture, and an on-suite bathroom. He lay in a heart-shaped bed under a light pink thin silk sheet that was the centre piece to the whole bedroom ensemble. He imagined there was more, but this was all he could see, the doors at the end of the room were closed. And, he was naked.

He pulled the sheet down to his waist and saw bruises all over his body. Again, he didn't feel any pain. He rolled to his side to tried to get out of bed, but found himself unable to. He pulled off the covers completely and found that his right ankle was shackled to the bottom of the bed, so he couldn't escape.

Unable to leave, he resigned himself to his circumstances and he leaned back, resting his head on the soft pillow provided. He draped the sheets back over his body.

Pondering, suddenly a tear rolled down the side of his face. It came involuntary.

He recalled everything that had happened to him. All the torture, every last moment of it. And yet, he felt a sense of self-retrospect. He hadn't divulged any NPA/Kira secrets. And to top it off, he no longer felt sexually frustrated. But the question was: _How much of what they did to me did I really enjoy?_

His will had been stronger than their punishments. But he was Kira, and Kira was dominate above all others.

He had defeated L, the so-called greatest detective. He then went out and became a great detective of his rite joining in his father's footsteps to become a member of the NPA. Up until now, he was masquerading as L, while he was delivering judgment over the world's wicked. So, if he could do all that, even defeat the machinations of a dominatrix in her own Den, then he knew he could do anything.

He knew there as still so much more wickedness to cast judgement upon, so he had to stay alive at any cost.

He smelled the air, there was a strange but pleasurable scent that he wasn't familiar with, but liked. It helped to calm his mind.

Suddenly, the doors opened that lead into Tigressa's inner-sanctum, and it was the lady herself.

The doors lead to another room adjacent, a living quarters. But he couldn't see much beyond her supple, ample frame. She had discarded the Kimono and was now dressed in a red and white tight fitting dragon decor dress that draped down just above her knees. Her hair was braided across her left shoulder and she wore with a necklace that dropped over her buxom breasts with the Japanese kanji for Hope.

_She must only wear the Kimono as part of her Den ensemble?_ Now off duty, she was in casual attire, which he found agreeable.

He felt less resolved now, that of a detective. And as for Kira, he didn't have anyone suspicious of him being the pseudo-god here. After everything he remembered, he smiled at her in spite of himself.

She smiled, a reflection of a good indication of mood.

"Good evening, Detective Yagami," she said sweetly, closing the doors behind her. She went to the bed and sat down on its edge. "You look well rested. You've been asleep for eighteen hours. How do you feel?"

"Call me, Light," he began conversionally, then said: "I feel wonderful, never better. Like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders." Not even he knew why he was in a such a happy-minded mood. He figured it might have had something to do with what had happened to him. He found his own honesty quite refreshing. He stared at the ceiling. "I can recall everything and" —he looked back at her— "I think you broke me."

"You didn't reveal anything even after everything you through, Light. You're a truly remarking person. I have never met anyone like you. No one ever has been able resist my methods before. I _am_ impressed. Riki had to take a nap afterwards."

Light laughed. "That's not what I meant. I've pondered it in the back of my mind, I even wondered about it when I was in high school, but after last night, I can now, assuredly, admit it. But, I do _still_ like women."

"So, you think you might be bi-sexual? There's nothing wrong with that. They say it is the best of both worlds, even I have dabbled in such affairs. But I lean more to the opposite sex."

"Does it really matter these days? With all the political correctness and acceptance of different values? Japan is a tolerant state, but it's also a nation proud of its culture. I can understand why it wants to establish a uniform and orderly state. My father would never accept it. So, I'll keep it secret for now." He looked longingly into her green eyes. "You're a gorgeous woman, Mistress Tigressa."

She chuckled, said: "I think the session may have affected you more than you know. You are showing all the signs of Stockholm Syndrome, when one falls in love with their captor and then becomes their loyal and obedient servant. But I don't see you one to take marching orders from me after everything you went through."

Light nodded. "Maybe I just need a little more rest. But, I meant it. You are a lovely woman." _If Misa ever heard me say that, she'd no doubt want to kill you…_

"Asumi, my name is Asumi Satou. Mistress Tigressa is my alias for Kira's sake."

Light produced a thin smile. "Ah, such pretty name. And Riki, is that also his alias?" She said no, and revealed his real name. "I'll tell you a secret. The NPA know the Yukaza use aliases."

She nodded. "We're already aware of that. Kira is the main reason we took our operations underground. This is a vast underground complex—a city, in fact—connecting every part to Japan's dark underbelly. But other parts are sealed off for security reasons, so if, per se, the complex is overtaken, access to other sections are restricted. The Yukaza, the Dragon Sect, is ruled by Mr. Terrance Claw— _my Master_. But that is not is really name. I don't know his real name. He operates drug cartels, gambling dens, and everything in between—all from down here. The raid you were plucked from, where everyone else was killed, was revealed to us long before it was to take place, so we had time to prepare. I failed with you, but I lied to my Master and told him that you had talked, and some NPA secrets, because I did not want them to torture you to death. They were secrets revealed to me by two Yukaza members who killed an NPA informant two days prior, for which I had not told my Master about."

_That would be KF4_. _They must've tortured him before they killed him._ "A lot of good people lost their lives during that raid," Light said. "If the Yukaza knew about it, why not issue a warning to the police?"

"Because then they would find out that we have an informant within the NPA. And now I'll tell you a secret—a secret for a secret—our informant is none other than the new Superintendent of the NPA, Chief Tatami. He has been one of us for some time."

Light's brow rose in surprise. "The Yakuza have managed to infiltrate that high up, that's quite impressive." But It didn't matter to him. He didn't know anyone within the field teams. Was that cold? Probably so, but it was true. He paused, then: "By the way, I would like to inquire about my watch. It's important to me. It was a gift from my father when I entered university, it has great sentimental value. I had asked Riki about it, but he said he'd inquire."

"I was told you were searched and it was taken when you were brought in. It was more than likely examined by our technology experts, then given to Master Claw. I'll inquire about it. However, if he likes something, he keeps it. So, be prepared for that."

Light nodded, and then looked back at the ceiling. He had to get his watch back by any means necessary. The piece of the Death Note was very important and could very well be his ticket out of here. He had to play along to Tigressa's notion that he may have Stockholm Syndrome.

"By the way, what is that pleasant aroma?"

Tigressa stood up, and then picked up a burning scented candle off one of her nightstands, reached over the bed and allowed Light to take a sniff.

"Apricot," she said. "I have several different scents for different times of the day, and not just in my bedroom." She explained she had a couple of rooms and her quarters was housed within the Residential District of the complex.

Light was now getting a better idea of what he was dealing with, whom, and where he might be. But trying to pinpoint and exact location was next to impossible.

She returned the candle to the night stand, then sat back down the edge of the bed.

Light bunched up the sheets and exposed his ankle. "Why keep me chained like a dog? I promise, I'm not going to run away. In fact, I would like to offer my services as a member of the NPA Information Bureau, if Terrance Claw will have me? I'm sure he could use a person with my skills. I'm an expert in computers of all types. I think my police profile already states that."

He needed to infiltrate the Yukaza like he had originally planned before KF4's death. Now that he knew the man who had lied about knowing the real identity of Kira was dead, he still needed a means to collect names to write down in the Death Note.

He already had two names: Tigressa's and Riki's. But he needed more to inflict major damage to the Dragon Sect for what they had done to him. It had now came down to simple revenge. They had violated him in the most extreme ways imaginable, and that was a good enough reason. He was Kira and he had his pride. They had nearly taken that away. And he had to keep lying to bring Tigressa into a false sense of security. And, after what they took away from him, he had to take away something equally important to them— _namely their all god-damn existence!_

This gave him the perfect opportunity. If he could convince Terrance Claw, the leader of this facility, that he was trustful, and had the merit to become one of them—and with his talent and skills, that shouldn't be a problem—he could even get close enough to kill the head of the Dragon Sect. Being called "Master" suited Light's mental profile on the man—with an arrogant, superiority complex.

And yet, Light also considered Claw an architect and a visionary to craft this underground complex. He wanted to see Terrance Claw, play to his ego. That's how you kill a man who plays with the lives of others, much like killing a Shinigami. You lull them into a false sense of security and then strike, and kill them all!

Tigressa blinked shocked. "Are you serious? You want to stay? But why? You can't, Light. No!" She almost said in a panic. "I need to tell you something for me. Terrance Claw is a murdering psychopath, you can't get involved with him. When he gets his claws into you, you're his for life. He's fed more than a few people to his pet Komodo Dragon that resides in his private Arboretum Gardens. It wanders where it pleases and it only obeys him."

Light's gaze narrowed. "Why are you telling me this? I thought you were loyal to your Master?"

Tigressa was hesitant, then: "Because I want to leave this place, Light. I want to get out of this _hell hole!_ "

_To be continued..._


	9. Riki's Personal Life

Due to his high standing as Mistress Tigressa's Prime Assistant, Riki had been afforded his own private quarters in the Residential District. Attendants and other aids, however, had to share quarters, two or three per person.

Comparatively, Riki's quarters was only half the size as his Mistress's, but it was all he needed. He wasn't into large places. When he was a kid, he remembered he had a fear of open spaces. So, his quarters were perfect for him. It was moderately decorated for aesthetics rather than personal favourability. He had a few items of note spread throughout his living quarters, but nothing reflective of a personal nature. He preferred to keep things simple.

He did have one item that was significant to him and he displayed it in prominent spot, on a round table, with an overhead light in the corner of his bedroom. It was a ten-inch tall statue of a young man with long blue hair, crouched down on his knees with his arms strapped behind his back and his legs chained with leather strappings in bondage submission, the character was from a Japanese anime cartoon, of the adult kind.

He had received it from his Mistress as a gift. But he couldn't remember the title of the anime nor the character's name. It was erotic in nature, and yet it was a constant reminder of his own trappings in the Yukaza.

He remembered that he had been snatched off the street, much like most children are, and forced to enter the sex trade at the precious age of seven. It didn't take him long to yield to the needs of Attendants, and over time establish his own bag of tricks. Over the years, he worked himself up the ladder and was eventually promoted to Prime Assistant, after the previous Mistress was killed for defying the Master. He was not privy to the details.

He took orders only from Mistress Tigressa now and that earned him a certain amount of respect and power. He did his job, did what the Mistress directed him to do, and that was pretty much that. When _he_ directed people to do something within the Den, they did it without question, or they would feel the wrath of the Mistress.

The hierarchy in the Den was simple: The _Mistress_ was the head of the Den—there were more dens throughout Japan, and hence throughout the world—then came Riki, her _Prime Assistant._ Lower to him were _Secondary Assistants_ , that aided Riki when called upon. Then there were the _Evaluators_ , for which Riki doubled as—those who evaluated people to be later questioned by the Mistress through initial interrogation. Then there were the _Foray/Den Attendants_ , both male and female, who did the will of the Mistress, and punished those who defied her, and finally there was general _Helpers_ , like the ladies who attended telephones for communication purposes in the reception areas, and other go-betweens. Everything had an order.

The Mistress hated surprises, but Light Yagami had been quite surprising. He had defied the Mistress not once, but multiple times in the same session, and yet he still don't yield to any pressures put forth. The session with the detective had been thoroughly exhausting and Riki had to take a rest with the Mistress's permission. He had never witnessed a person more strong-willed than Light Yagami. Most people would talk, but Light Yagami did not bow.

Impressed, but Light Yagami struck him as arrogant. He was a person who had a strong code and quite possibly a personal agenda. There was something about the detective that made Riki feel unnerved, and that went beyond normal policing. If it were up to him, he'd have nothing more to do with Yagami.

But it was not up to him, and he swore to do his Mistress's bidding. Riki admired the detective for his unwavering dedication. He only wished he had that same willpower in his own personal life.

Light Yagami had been taken from the Mistress's private chambers more than eighteen hours ago, and since then, Riki had had no one to evaluate. And the Mistress had requested nothing from him. Therefore, he had little to do.

As he lay in bed, one arm behind his head underneath a pillow, he stared up at the ceiling and imagined what his old life had been like. Vague pictures came to mind of faces he didn't remember. It had been so long since he had been above ground, even before the advent of the mass murderer known as Kira—the faceless god who lay justice upon the wicked and punished people. He couldn't remember much of anything, except for his life in the Den.

He raised his free hand in the air and looked at his pale skin colour. Sunlamps stimulated the sun's heat, but it was not the same. He wanted to feel the warmth of the sun on his skin and the wind in his hair again.

He had snuck away from the Den once a few years back, not to escape but to experience the same longing after spending three years underground. But he was quickly found and punished for doing so. Now, years later, he longed to leave the Den again, if only see the outside world.

He sat up, and shifted his feet over the edge. His bed was so soft that it was like sleeping on a cushion of air. The sheets were made of silk and were pink. It was not a masculine colour, but he resigned to his Mistress's choice because it was also a gift.

He looked back, he was not alone. Next to him slept his partner. Aiden, who was also in the trade, and who was one of a handful of _Secondary Assistants_ who aided him when called upon. His Mistress recommended he share his bed with someone so he would not get lonely, or even frustrated in his job. Since he was not allowed to release. Male or female, the Mistress didn't discriminate, and left it up for him to decide.

Sharing his bed with Aiden just felt right and he was not ashamed of it. They were of consent, and both nineteen—Riki was the older by three months—only their trade was illegal. Their relationship had been platonic at first, all they did was share a bed. It saved on space within the Residential District, there was only a limited amount of space available. But then it had progressed.

With Aiden, he could do his job properly when conducting his evaluations, and helping the Mistress, and then release the stress and frustration of the day with him when he got home, and Aiden was very accommodating.

However, after Light Yagami, he went straight to bed, and after Aiden was finished with his duties, he later learned his partner had joined him, careful not to disturb him as he slept. Aiden was sweet and caring in that way. But within the last twenty-four hours, neither one could help the other relief stress. Aiden was called away several times to help other Evaluators and Attendants. It was the job of a Secondary Assistant to be on-call.

He went to stand, when he felt a hand touch him. Riki looked back and saw Aiden smiling at him, awake. "Where are you going? Stay in bed with me. You've been very busy lately. Spend some time with me."

"I have to use the bathroom, but I'll return shortly," Riki said with a return smile, and then stood.

Wearing little, he walked to the on-suite bathroom. He could feel Aiden's eyes on him the whole way.

After he had concluded, he washed his hands. Then he looked into the circular mirror above the sink. He felt tired, and could see a sadness in his eyes that had not been there a day before. His heart ached to be free of this place. He had this feeling for a while now, but only after Yagami did it truly hit home. He did his Mistress's bidding, but he desired something more. He wanted to be free.

A knock came on the bathroom door, he had not locked it, and it opened with Aiden on the other side.

Aiden wore baby blue silk underwear. He walked over and hugged Riki, then broke it. "I thought you needed that," he said. "You look tired. Has Mistress Tigressa been working you too much? You've been spending a lot time involved with her lately, and I heard about that NPA detective—what's him name? He has the kanji for Moon, or something?" Riki was surprised that Aiden knew. "Word gets around," he responded to the unspoken surprise.

Riki put a hand to his face, he knew he couldn't hide anything from Aiden. "Yes, she has, but she's my Mistress and I have to do what she wishes." He sighed. "His name is Light Yagami, and he, well, he defied the Mistress, three times before submitting." That last part was a lie, but he didn't want it getting around that the Mistress had failed.

Aiden gasped shocked. "Did you use all the usual methods? How far did the Mistress have to go before he broke?"

Riki told him, telling him graphic details, of both the _Evaluation_ and the _Questioning_ , and then lied about the end result. He also revealed that he was instructed to gather a sample of Light Yagami's sperm.

"I would've really liked to see that session, you and the detective. The way you describe it, it bordered on erotic fantasy. Did you hear about that informant who was killed?"

"I saw it firsthand before I informed the Mistress that Yagami was ready. He was later killed," he explained. "I was told about it. They burned his body in an incinerator. He lied to the Mistress. No one lies to the Mistress."

"You are so devoted to her, but what about you? What about your needs? Come back to bed, I'll make you feel better." Aiden hugged him again, this time longer. "You always enjoy our sessions together."

Aiden always knew how to make him feel better, and he knew all of Riki's sweet spots, and to instigate the most intense feelings. But he didn't feel like it right now. He gave Aiden a small kiss on the cheek, and smiled. "Not right now," he said. "I have something to do for the Mistress, I need to get dressed and leave soon."

Aiden refused to get out of his way. "You're too loyal, Riki. You're not a robot. Mistress Tigressa relays too much on you." He forcefully turned Riki to the mirror, they both looked. "Look at your eyes, you're exhausted. You need time off."

Riki chuckled, then burst out laughing. "Time off?" He looked at Aiden straight in the eyes. "What sort of work do you think we're in? We don't get time off! We are always on-call. I slept most these last twenty-four hours. We were initiated into this trade together, snatched days apart from the streets. Don't get presumptuous that you can defy the will of our masters here. This is our life now. We have a duty, and we must obey the Mistress, or we'll be killed—worse even, we'll end up like that informant, and suffer the same horrible fate! We've had this conversion before and I thought we'd concluded it. I have to go now, the Mistress will be waiting for me."

_And yet, I want to be free._

He pushed Aiden aside, but Aiden grabbed him, and faced him forward. "It doesn't have to be this way. Granted, you are the Mistress's Prime Assistant. But you need to also take care of yourself, or you'll die young. She'll work you to death and I don't want that, Riki. I care for you deeply."

Aiden began to cry, and Riki whipped a tear from his partner's eye with a thumb. He knew Aiden liked him more than one should. In this trade it was not wise to get attached. But it couldn't be helped. They were partners.

"You're very sweet, Aiden," Riki said, and then kissed him. "But I have to go…"

All of sudden, Aiden took charge and turned Riki around, then he pushed him to the floor, cradled him, pinned him, and kissed Riki more intensely. At first, Riki protested, but it didn't take long for him to relent, and soon, they were in a passionate embrace.

The act of love was next.

After it was over, Riki breathed heavy. He then sat up, planted his feet on the floor from the bed. Aiden also got up, but then laid back on the bed. "That was incredible, _Hiro_ —I mean, _Riki_. Sorry, slip of the tongue there. I know we're supposed to use alias's because of Kira."

Riki smiled. "Yes, we are. But it's always nice to hear my real name every once in a while… _Aiko_."

They both laughed.

Riki took a quick shower, finished his belutions, and then dressed proper. Then left.

He had no evaluations today, but he still had to speak to Mistress Tigressa. Every other day, they had meetings.

He went to turn a corner in a corridor when he halted, observing two men a little way down. They appeared to be talking to themselves. He went over. "May I be of assistance, gentleman? Oh, I remember you. You were the two men who brought Detective Light Yagami in for evaluation."

The two men looked at him. One was called Sai, Riki recalled. The large man, Nazareth, towered above them both, and had large muscles like a wrestler.

"Its good that we caught up with you, Riki," Sai spoke up. "Master Claw wishes to speak with Mistress Tigressa on an urgent matter. Can you give her the message? We haven't been able to find her in the usual places, if you understand? But we haven't tried her quarters yet."

Riki understood. "I was just on my way to see her. I can give her the message for you."

Sai thanked Riki, and then they two enforcers left.

_To be continued..._


	10. The Red Dragon

"You wish to leave the Yukaza?" Light voiced, a little shocked. He wondered if this had anything to do with him being a member of the NPA. She had no idea that the NPA disavowed everyone involved within the Kira Task Force. Maybe she thought with his connections, he could somehow get her out. She wanting to question him on a more in-depth level now made more sense. "But I thought you said no one leaves? That Terrance Claw will kill anyone who tries?"

"Yes, he will, but you work for the NPA. You have connections, right?"

He assumed correctly. But after everything she'd done to him, why would he help this bitch? Without access to the outside, apart from whatever underground communications there were down here, there was no possible way. But he would play to her want to leave and then manipulate her into helping him find a way out instead.

However, it was personal now. He wanted to destroy the Dragon Sect and Terrance Claw.

So, he would follow through in his plan to get close to the master of the facility, collect names, and then when he escaped, use the Death Note to kill the whole lot of them. It would be Kira's magnum opus.

_No one fucks with Kira!_

"I assume all communications are monitored, correct?" She nodded. "Then we'll have to find another way. I'll still make my offer to work for the Dragon Sect, and through these means, we'll both find a way to escape this place." He lied.

"Terrance Claw will be highly suspicious of you. He already has a complete profile of your affiliations, and because you're a member of the NPA, he more than likely will want proof of your loyalty. He'll want classified information."

"That can be arranged. Sometimes you have to give a little to get a lot. So, I need you to take me to Terrance Claw."

Light knew the NPA had a department set up just such emergencies. If a captured agent was ever forced to reveal information to an enemy, he/she would use information not known to the public regarding internal affairs of the NPA, and hidden secretly within a DIET parliamentary database regarding police matters which was falsified. However, could he trust that information now with the chief of the NPA known to be a Yukaza spy? Regardless, it was not in the public domain. He also knew other information Terrance Claw would be interested in and it concerned Kira. He could use that if all else failed.

But if the chief of police's position had been compromised, then what _other_ places had been infiltrated by the Yukaza?

"Very well, I'll take you to him," she said with a sigh. "But I don't like it. He has this uncanny ability to know when someone is lying to him. The previous Mistress—the woman before me—was executed because she lied to him about some manner; failed. I was promoted soon afterwards. I then promoted Riki as my Prime Assistant."

Light jingled the chain to his shackles, stating the obvious, that he couldn't leave unless he was released.

Tigressa reached into a hidden pocket in her dress and produced a key, then unlocked the shackles. He edged off the bed, holding the silk sheet to his body. As if that was necessary, she had already seen everything he had to offer.

Walking to a hidden closet in the wall, she opened a door and showed him a complete wardrobe he could choose from. Her clothes took up most of the walk-in closest, but there was a collection of men's clothes too.

Light went over, walked in, and glanced around at the clothes hung on racks, shoes on the floor, belts on shelves, different varieties of underwear, and pants pressed and hanging on coat hangers. On one shelf there was even a men's shaving kit.

She said, "Master Claw prefers his 'guests' to dress well while in his attendance. You can choose anything you like. You're not the only person I've had to present before Master Claw, so I hope something fits you? You're taller than most."

"Can I take a shower first? After everything, I want to be at my best when I meet Terrance Claw."

Tigressa smirked. "You sound just like some secret agent preparing to met an arch-villain."

In a way, she was correct. But he laughed. "No, I'm just this way in real life. Sloppiness is not my forte."

Light took a shower and shaved. He wasn't watched, but he didn't plan on doing anything. When he exited the on-suite bathroom, he had a towel wrapped around his waist and dried his hair with another. Tigressa was not in the bedroom, but the doors to the living quarters were open, and looking around, there was no other way out except for this way. So, if he tried to escape on his own, she'd spot him. However, he had no intention of running anywhere wearing only a towel.

He went into the walk-in closet and sifted through the collection of clothes, looking at the sizes. Most of them were too small for him and he was starting to think he'd never find anything his size and half descent. Then, he came across a black dress shirt and matching pants. He also found a black jacket beautifully embroiled with a red dragon (Ryu) wound around its shoulders and chest. It was quite intense, but he was inside the Dragon Sect after all and it was suiting. And it matched the ensemble.

Choosing a sealed packaged pair of underwear, oddly enough, she had his size of jockeys in stock, and they were black, he slipped them on. Black seemed to fit the theme. He tried everything on in front of a mirror in the closest and things fit like a glove. He put on a belt underneath the jacket and a pair of black dress shoes to conclude it all. He wished he had his watch.

He walked out and in the bedroom, and Tigressa had just entered from the living quarters. She stopped short and stunned. "I approve, Light. Very becoming, you look good in black. It suits you. And the dragon jacket is a nice touch."

"I've always thought so," he smirked, he straightened his jacket cuffs.

She went over to him, and in her hands was a gold chain with the symbol for the Dragon Sect. She put it over Light's head and positioned it over his chest. Had she left to get this?

"Master Claw will find you more convincing if you completely embrace the Sect," she said.

He cupped it in his hand and he agreed. He had to play to the role.

Suddenly, she froze when a couple of knocks came at her private quarters door.

"Are you expecting anymore?"

She shook her head. She went to answer the door to her quarters and Riki stood on the other side. She fell into the role of Mistress Tigressa immediately. "Yes, Riki?"

"Sorry for the interruption, Mistress," he said. "I came here to inform you of that Master Claw…" He suddenly gasped, looking beyond her.

She turned, Light Yagami had walked out into the open as if wanting to be noticed. He stood tall and confident, adjusting the collar of his dragon jacket—as if what he had gone through on eighteen hours before was nothing.

Tigressa looked back to Riki, the teen looked shocked.

Tigressa had had brought a few people to her quarters, some men, some women, but only by the authority of the Master for proper dress to attend personal meetings with Master Claw. Plus, they were thoroughly guarded. But there were no guards.

"This is unorthodox," Riki remarked. "Why is he here in your private quarters and unguarded?" Riki appeared to have caught his folly. "I'm sorry, it's not my place to question you, Mistress. Forgive my impertinence."

"Light Yagami is my guest, Riki," she explained. Light now had his hands at his sides. "Master Claw wishes to speak with me, and has invited the detective to join us. I am to watch him."

Riki blinked, but his shock seemed to narrow down into a form of jealously, Light observed. He eyed Light with a disconcerting look. Then he turned back to Tigressa. "I was also informed of this request by the men who brought the detective in. They asked if I could relay the same message to you. You obviously received the message before me."

"Yes, I was told," she lied. "We were about to depart for the Arboretum Gardens to see the Master in the few minutes."

"Ah, then I will depart and continue other duties," Riki turned, and seemed to leave quickly.

She shut the door. "He likes you, I got the impression," Light said with a thin smile. "Similar to a son and a mother, and he gave me a nasty look like I was a new suitor to replace a fatherly figure."

"I'm his Mistress, our relationship isn't like that. It's purely professional."

"Do you treat him any differently than any of the others under you hospice?"

"Well, yes. He is my Prime Assistant, and he has a partner, per se. But he never addressed their relationship to be anything more than a convenience, he lives with another named Aiden. Aiden is a _Second Assistant_ , who aids in several tasks throughout the Den. The Residential Distinct has limited space, so many share quarters." She quickly went through the hierarchy of the Den and Light was impressed that it was run with such order, much like a political body. "But I believe Aiden is much more to him."

Light nodded, and didn't need to have it explained further. Riki was only a year younger than Light. At first, he was uncomfortable with the life choice, but after everything he had recently experienced, it didn't bother him anymore.

But, he still vowed the teen would pay for what he'd done.

"It looks like we now have a personal invitation from the Master," she said.

"That was convenient." But he had a feeling Terrance Claw would request him sooner of later with Light's skills. "Now I'll be able to present my offer to Terrance Claw with more confidence. But Riki only said Terrance Claw wants to see you, there was nothing in the message about me. But I'm sure he'll be interested in what I have to offer him. But, I'm sure, he already knows I'm coming."

"How do you know that?"

Light went over to one of her paintings. It was a surreal paining of a Japanese _Edo_ period landscape. If Light recalled, the Edo period encompassed the beginning of the seventeenth and ended in the later half of the nineteenth centuries. It was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate and its many powerful feudal lords. It was an era of economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, establishing a stable population, with the motto: "No More Wars". However, that wasn't what Light was indicating which suited the piece. In the eye of the feudal lord was a miniature camera. He had noticed it a while ago.

"I'm trained to see things that go unnoticed by others, it's my job," and he pointed to the camera. She looked closer and suddenly became very angry, she was being spied upon. She wondered how long it had this being there? She had never noticed it.

"It would appear that privacy is not a virtue in your Master's world," Light said.

_To be continued..._


	11. The Master

They were met at the threshold of the Arboretum Gardens by a bodyguard and Light was thoroughly body searched before he was allowed to enter, the guard even putting his hands on places he had no business touching. However, Light let it pass not wanting to make a scene. The man was just doing his job. Terrance Claw was a powerful man and obviously very careful.

Mistress Tigressa was grandfathered through because the Master has invited her. She wouldn't dare bring a weapon with her.

As they followed the bodyguard, they were escorted through a lush forestry of exotic flora and fauna that Light found fascinating to be growing underground. Some of the plants needed proper sunshine, but Terrance Claw appeared to have solved that problem with a series of sunlamps and mirrors angled exactly right that directed sunshine from the upper surface from somewhere. As for water, there were sprinklers that sprayed the plants every fifteen minutes.

Equally impressive was when they walked over a wooden bridge that arched over a small makeshift river that snaked through the gardens. Statues of gods and ancient powerful Japanese creatures stood watch everywhere as if overseeing the entire place. The centre piece was a large stature of the bellyful god Buddha with its larger than life smile and round head. There were even birds flying around, chirping with an unusual happiness for animals who would never see the world above, creating a serene atmosphere.

This was Terrance Claw's inner sanctum, his gardens of peace and tranquilly. And the man himself stood wearing a dark kimono sprinkling food to some fish in a mini, separated pond, apart from the river. He was middle-aged and slightly greying at the sides, with a strong-looking and dominate form. Light had originally pictured the man as a thin, older gentleman. He had been wrong.

Tigressa had given him a short profile of the man as they made their way to the gardens, one floor down from the Residential District. Each floor was separated by concrete. And after it was explained, Light now knew there were several floors to this massive underground complex, separated into countless districts.

But this floor was Terrance Claw's solely. He was surrounded by bodyguards in dark suits. Even down here, he was cautious.

They came to stand close, the escorting bodyguard standing next to them. At first, Terrance Claw didn't acknowledge them and continued to feed his fish—gold fish, Light observed. Then the man brushed off his hands and turned them, looking serious.

They stood in silence for a moment before Terrance Claw spoke: "You're a very clever, young man, Detective Yagami. Finding that hidden camera in Tigressa's quarters wasn't easy. I thought it was too small to notice. But what else would I expect from an intelligent person such as yourself? A man of two worlds: part of the NPA special Information Bureau and the Kira Task Force?"

_General information at this point,_ Light mused.

"I've had dealings with such things before" —namely when L bugged his bedroom and entire house— "and I know the signs." Then Light smirked. "Besides, an unusual glint within any large picture at just the right angle from a light source gives it away."

Terrance nodded. "True." He turned to Tigressa who looked angry but didn't wish to say it. "Forgive me, Mistress Tigressa. It was only a temporarily measure. But you'll be pleased to know, there was no sound."

Light knew that was a lie. Terrence had heard everything they said, even the part where Tigressa wished to leave the Yukaza. And even Light's interest to join the Yukaza and offer his services to the Yukaza. However, Tigressa's admission was left to dwell in limbo at the moment. But she may pay a price for it later.

Terrance Claw suddenly smiled and his immediate seriousness left him. He looked Light up and down and nodded his approval.

"You choice wisely, Detective, those clothes suit you well. And the emblem chain is a nice touch; Tigressa's idea, no doubt. You look like my son. Unfortunately, he died just recently. Kira murdered him. No one knows how the bastard kills, but he seems to have a god-like power unmatched."

"So, I've been told," Light agreed. "I've been investigating Kira, and he seems to have an unnatural ESP power that can kill by mere thought. Kira can even kill a person by looking you directly in the eye and think how you should die." It was an exaggeration, but not unlike the Shinigami eyes that Misa had. Kira needed a name and face to kill to write down in the Death Note. However, he wasn't able to reveal that. What little information he just gave obviously wet Terrance Claw's appetite. "But, this information has not been divulged to the general public. If this was known, even suspected, there would be panic in the streets. Kira could be walking among them, and if someone tripped, or a car backfired, people would shout: _Kira! Kira is here!_ And run for the hills."

If that didn't make the man believe Light was serious in joining the Yukaza, nothing else would.

Terrance Claw laughed, and then gave Light a hearty slap on the back. Light wasn't expecting it and was startled. Terrance invited Light to walk with him through the gardens, Tigressa followed close behind, the bodyguard further back. "I've heard stories about you, Detective. You appeared to really partake in Tigressa's punishment machinations."

"I have to admit, it was eye-opening," Light said truthfully. He wanted to get down the brass tax, but Terrance Claw probably already knew what he was about to say. But the man would not led on otherwise what he said to Tigressa about the camera, or it would be a lie. "I've come to offer my services to the Yukaza," Light then said. "You've obviously aware of my police profile, so you know my skills. I was valedictorian at my high school and recited the entrance speech at my university's opening ceremonies. I also took top marks in my police foundation courses. I'm also a member of the Kira Task Force with L."

"Ah," Claw breathed. "That is what I wanted to ask you about. Who is this L character? No one has ever seen him."

"Neither have we, he instructs us from a speaker box. I guess he's afraid Kira might kill him. Law enforcement agencies along with the NPA disavow the task force because Kira has threatened to kill anyone who helps us try to catch him. I can understand their trepidation. Our profile on Kira is that he's a ruthless, psychopathic killer with a childish god-like sense of justice, who is willing to kill anyone to satisfy his own personal agenda to further his cause of a perfect world order."

Light had definitely intrigued Claw, and the man nodded with thought. He stopped. "Please come dine with me tonight, I wish to hear more," he said. "Unfortunately, I have another pressing appointment. You'll be my special guest. Tigressa, you're invited as well. I must thank you for helping enlighten this young man and bringing him to our side," Claw said to Tigressa. "You'll be an asset to the Yukaza, Detective Yagami. May I call you Light?" Light nodded. "With your skills and knowledge, the Dragon Sect will the most powerful in the underworld."

"Anything I can do to help. Alliances change and I believe I'm more than willing for a change in venue. It gets boring repeating the same actions day after day. I'm not one to remain in one place for long."

Terrance Claw chuckled. "I like you, Light. You're brash and cocky. Most people would be intimidated by me, but you're an odd duck, as they say."

All of a sudden, a large Komodo Dragon came out from a thicket of bushes and crawled towards Light. He froze. He had only seen such a creature behind glass at zoos or in online documentaries. Claw halted the ten foot, hundred-fifty pound scaly amphibian with a hand and a command, and it stopped. Light breathed out relieved. But he memorized the command, it could come in handy later.

"Kito came to say hello, Light," Claw said, "I've had him since he was small enough to fit into the palm of my hand." The Komodo Dragon ejected its tongue out and eyed him, it acted like a guard dog. "But if you try and pet him, you'll most likely loose a limb."

"I'll try and remember that," Light said, taking an involuntary step back. "I was never a person for lizards. I had a dog when I was kid, but that was as far as I went with animals. I concentrated more on my studies to get into the best schools."

"And you should be commended for that sacrifice. Most kids waste their time with drugs and innocuous sexual encounters, even cartoons, that cater nothing to their future. They even post their stupidity online for future employers too view."

"I was never one for social media accounts, but my girlfriend has a few."

He internally gasped. Damn, he had slipped up. The man got him talking about the causality of life and he had let his guard down. He hoped the man had not noticed his mistake. If he knew about his background, then Terrance Claw would know about Misa Amane. And if information was ever brought to light that she was accused of being the _Second Kira_ , then Light would be the prime suspect of being _Kira_. And without his watch, he had no way to demonstrate his ability to kill if Terrance Claw demanded so.

_My watch…I have to get my watch back._

"Yes, Misa Amane," he waved a hand as if to wave off a bad smell. "We know all about her. You can do better, the stupid tramp. Her movies are horrible, her voice is whiny at best, and her acting is amateurish. The only thing she has going for her is that she has a nice figure. I don't know how you can tolerate her?"

"I've managed, for the most part. But I'm looking for a change. I need someone who can stimulate me where it counts."

"Then try Tigressa, I bet she can stimulate you in places you never knew you had," and Terrance Claw laughed boisterously. A thin man in glasses and wearing a striped suit approached Claw, handing him an item. Claw turned to Light. "Ah, yes…Mr. Yagami, here is your cellphone. We need you to unlock it for us. Our experts can't seem to get past your encryption system. It's not your normal four-digit password. It also needs a finger print and a voice command. Quite sophisticated. Is there something you don't want anyone to see? Scandalous pictures of your girlfriend, perhaps? Emails and text messages from your contacts about your work?"

"Both actually, and a disturbing video of two men having sex," he said half-humorously. "Misa tried to be funny when I didn't find her stimulating enough." He unlocked his cell, but the command he gave also did something else. With the command, he secretly slid his finger across the edge of the phone, deleting most of the contents. He had adapted the phone to his own special needs, and he was thankful he did. The slide told it to delete all his email accounts and contacts and render it unable to retrieve them. He'd have to re-initialize things at a later date. But Terrance Claw didn't know that when he handed him back the phone. "The emails and texts are connected to a special server and can only be read with a passcode within a certain range. It helps with security issues."

"I see, so, your phone is nothing but a paperweight down here in my underground complex?"

"Correct. But I did unlock it for you, so you may be able to get something from it."

"True. I'll have my experts look into it." Claw bent down to pet Kito, the lizard hissed with its tongue, much like cat would purr. Leaving, he said: "Until later then, Light." And Light bowed, which was the respectful thing to do.

x x x

When they left the gardens, Tigressa and Light returned to her private chambers. Immediately, Light went to the large picture on her bedroom wall and checked it. The camera was gone. And now that he had applied to become a member of the Yukaza, he was more than sure that there were no more cameras in Tigressa's quarters.

The moment he told her that her bedroom was safe, she jumped him, and they landed on her heart-shaped bed.

She kissed him with a passion he had never experienced before. Shocked, he rolled her over and pinned her down. He looked into her eyes, and she into his, a lust embroiled, and he kissed her, long and hard.

Tigressa had told him how exciting it was to see Light engaging Terrance in that way, as they walked back. No one had ever met him on an equal level before.

When he broke the kiss, a string of spittle bridged their moist lips.

"I want you, Light Yagami. I need the touch of a strong man."

"And I need to know that I'm still one…"

They let themselves go, and stripped, and a raw animal magnetism between them was unleashed, unabated.

He used his tongue and licked ever inch of her, and like a snake, he slithered it into her wet passages. When she demanded more, he continued to lick her sensual places, and then entered her. She cried out for more. He pulled out before he released, stimulated in a way he had not felt in some time with the woman. Then he cleaned her with his tongue, making her gasp with elation.

They kissed when it was over.

Once they were done, they lay next to each other, sweat beading from their naked bodies.

"So, how did you enjoy doing it with a woman?" she asked with a little laugh.

"What happened before was forced, this was pure pleasure. But I've now experienced both worlds," he said with a smile. "A person must always try new things."

For a fleeting moment, he thought of Misa. He'd have to show her a few tricks when he returned. But he wondered how she was handling his disappearance? And on that thought, he wondered the mindset of his father. He had been gone for nearly three days without a trace. Had they put out an All Purpose Bulletin for him? But he had to reassure himself that they weren't panicking too much. He was an adult. He could handle himself in times of crises.

_Kira_ always won.

_To be continued..._


	12. A Worried Father

Soichiro Yagami paced in the living room of Light's apartment which also doubled as the Kira Task Force de facto headquarters. It was the walk of a worried Father.

Matsuda kept watching him and felt his nervousness weighing heavily on everyone else. Aizawa and Mogi had tried to hack into Light's sophisticated computer system, but after thirty minutes they stopped trying. They were hoping to find some clue as to where the Yukaza had taken him after the botched raid on a matinee in a dilapidated part of town. The only information they had, was what Misa provided them, and that ended with Light's disappearance.

With the scene cordoned off for investigation, the task force members weren't allowed to assist the forensics team that was on site, combing through the now abandoned Yukaza haven. The Yukaza had conducted a thorough job in cleaning out the site, but Chief Tatami of the NPA still wanted more checks. So, they had to settle with the waiting game back at Light's apartment.

"Chief, settle down," Matsuda said, "or you'll wear a hole through the floor."

"I'm not your chief anymore, Matsuda," Soichiro said gruffly. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"You'll always be the chief to me, sir. You're the glue that holes this task force together. We're all worried about Light, so please sit down, or you'll give yourself another heart attack."

"He's right," Aizawa said. "Sit down, sir. All we can do is wait, pacing won't do you any good." He looked at Mogi, the big man shook his head; he didn't say much. Without a word, Mogi indicated he couldn't hack into Light's computer system despite trying again.

Aizawa knew it was well above everyone's computer skills, that's why they left all the computer stuff to Light. But he felt helpless. In a world where technology ruled the world, he was still far behind ten year olds who knew how to hack into highly sophisticated computer systems with the latest firewall protection. Just last year, there was a credible threat that a ten year old student had hacked into DIET's internal information servers just to claim that he could do it. He said it was to show off to his friends, but it turned out to be a serious blow to DIET's security systems—something to do with a WP4 backdoor—and was quickly rectified.

Aizawa had no idea where Light got all his knowledge from when it came to computers, kids these days seemed to be born plugged into the net, and instantaneously knew the craft. The Information Highway, RPG games, Data Pushing, (he heard Light say that once) and pseudo-code: a way for hackers to enter other servers by way of secret backdoors, and other stuff. It was all gibberish to him, but Light seemed to be an expert. And with his genius, he was a valuable asset to the Kira Task Force.

"We need something to distract ourselves," Aizawa then said. "The NPA is on the case, and Chief Tatami will pass on any information he finds. In the meantime, sir" —he looked to Soichiro— "tell us about one of your favourite cases."

Soichiro was taken aback. He gave a look to Aizawa as if saying this was not the time to dwell on the past. He wanted to know where his son was. However, Aizawa was right. There was nothing he, nor any of them, could do at the moment. There was only the task force in Light's apartment. Misa was worried, but she had a movie shoot, and thought the distraction would help her deal with Light's disappearance, so she went to it instead of waiting aimlessly at home. Soichiro heeded that advise.

He mused, thinking back. "Well, it's not necessarily one of my favourites, but it was one of my most intense," Soichiro said, and he began reciting it. In the end, the entire task force was shocked. It was a case that involved a child serial killer that began ten years ago. Matsuda and Mogi already knew about it, but Aizawa had not been with them at the time when the case finally came to a conclusion back when L was alive. It was a case they eventually ended up calling: "The Case of Jasper Yuta". _(Ref: my Novella: "The Case of Jasper Yuta")_

_Light, my son. Where are you?_


	13. Vampirism?

That evening, Light and Tigressa were escorted to the Dining Hall. The moment Light stepped through a set of double doors, he stood awed to the opulence and richness of the stately-esque decorated room with its buttress ceiling and grandiose walls.

The two main walls had larger than life murals depicting a captured moment in time from two ancient Japanese eras. Light had a photographic memory, but he had to search his mind to identify historical markers of which era each represented. Within moments, he identified each one. The artist(s) was extremely good and showed the emotionalism of each time snippet.

Light and Tigressa took seats next to each other at an elongated table, but neither one sat down. Within moments, Terrance Claw entered through another set of double doors from the other side of the room and greeted them both with open arms. Nazareth, the enforcer, was with him. Every powerful man needed body guards. But as this was an intimate dinner, only one was sufficient, Light wagered. But Nazareth was dressed in a suit that looked uncomfortable on him. The pair were told to sit and very quickly servers in white jackets began to occupy the table with the nights' delicacies.

After the usual starters and dinner conversion, drinks, and complements to the chef, an hour had past. Light thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the selections. He had never enjoyed such rich food. The head of the Dragon Sect lived very well in his underground complex well below the eyes and ears of the NPA.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Terrance," Light said. The man had insisted Light call him by that name instead of Master. That non de plume was reserved for those that served under him. Light wondered if Claw considered him an equal? He had called Light an "odd duck" before, but he was far from being the man's equal. _Why would Kira be anyone's equal?_ Light thought.

Light was most likely someone to be studied, to treat proper, to suck dry, and then throw away, by this narcissistic megalomanic. So, he'd stay on his guard. Expect the unexpected, as his father used to say, especially when dealing with sociopaths.

Terrance took a drink from a wine glass. "You're quite welcome, my boy," he said. "The information you've provided will go a long way in securing the Yukaza's standing in the underworld for many years to come. We've already verified that the information is genuine, the unredacted data you lead us to about DIET and the NPA is now in circulation and will come of great use."

_All fake, you naive bastard_ , Light knew. It was all from the secret servers the NPA set up for just such an occasion, for agents in the field to recite supposed falsified classified information if they weren't able to get word of their location out by other means, a locator beacon, per se. An alert will go out now telling the NPA that the servers have been accessed. _Hopefully,_ Light thought, _someone is smart enough to hone a trace to this place_. Then he mentally shook his head— _not likely_.

Light held up his own wine glass. He was never one to drink, but he couldn't fake it here. He sipped slowly. "I was serious when I said I wanted to join the Yukaza, Terrance," Light said. "And when I say something, I don't go back on my word. That's the kind of person my father brought me up as, the son of the former chief of the NPA."

Terrance Claw laughed. "How times have changed. In the many wars our people have fought, including the two great wars of the past century, warriors have always laid down their very lives for honour and pride. To dishonour yourself was the grievous of sins against one's morality. Now, in this brand new world, honour is just a buzzword."

Servers were clearing the table and other servers topped up their glasses. Light had finished his wine, but told the server by putting a hand over his glass he didn't wish for anymore. Instead, he asked for water. With a bow, the server left to fill the request, taking the wine glass with him. In front of him, a chocolate soufflé was put down. A rich desert, indeed. The previous servant quickly returned with a cold pitcher of water and filled a glass brought as well. This all happened with efficiency.

Light sipped his water and basked in its spring taste, said: "I tend to disagree, Terrance. There is still honour in Japan. However, it's taken a different form. We are no longer in need of the ancient art of the Samurai, or even kamikaze pilots, to keep us in our rite, our socialist/capitalist/democratic society brings us a new honour and separates us from an outdated notion that we need to spill blood for the Emperor. Japan's Emperor is a figure head much like England's Queen. We are a self-governing body now. Japan is one of most economically stable nations in the world and the forth largest exporters in the world. Granted, we are an isolated island, but that's how we have survived for so long.

"We've kept our civility by not bowing down to the whims of foreigners or foreign governments and their harmful culture. Advocates once said diversity and migration was necessary for stable growth, but look how that's turned out for countries such as France, the U.K, and Sweden, and, if I might say, the entire European continent. They are continuously embroiled in wars, be it political nowadays, amongst themselves, much like the feudal warlords of ancient Japan. _Kira_ has aided ceasing most wars, but there are still battles happening, mostly in Middle Eastern countries. But, with the advert of Kira, the world has reversed its course of destruction. And Japan has remained a powerhouse of stability within.

"And if I may add, the reason for that is because Japan's leaders keep tradition alive, refusing foreign influences that wish to penetrate our culture in an attempt to change it. Other countries have suffered the consequences of political correctness and now social warriors are tearing down their heroes of worship in the name of racism. Never let your guard down, or you'll find yourself looking at your once proud nation and see strangers everywhere you look.

"And that is true honour. Japan's true embodiment of its spirit."

"Very well said, Light," Terrance said, raising his wine glass. "You're a very smart young man. You'll make an excellent addition to the Yukaza. This dinner was just a formality, but I had made a decision ahead of time. Welcome to the Dragon Sect."

"Thank you, Terrance." Light held up his water glass, then took a drink. "By the way, I wish to make a request, if at all possible to grant: My watch. I was told it was taken off my wrist when I was brought here by two members of the Sect. Could I have it back? It was a gift from my father and it has sentimental value to me."

"Ah, yes, I was going to bring that up." Terrance put down his wine glass and held up a hand, Nazareth handed him the watch after removing it from a pocket. Terrance looked it over. "It's an interesting time piece, and when we examined it, quite revealing. We found the hidden compartment within" —Light remained calm— "and a small piece of paper."

Terrance demonstrated how to open it, three quick pulls of the winder. The hidden compartment opened and the criminal leader took out the paper. Little did he know that it was a torn piece of the Death Note Misa was currently in possession of, and that Light controlled. If a Shinigami were present, the man would now be able to see it. Anyone who touches the Death Note can see a god of death, that's what the rules say.

"What is this?" Terrance asked, holding it up. "Why do you hide a scrap of paper in your watch? Does it hold value?"

You have no idea how truly valuable it is. "Exactly what it appears to be, a scrap of paper. When your notebook is unavailable, anything will do to write down notes," he said simply. Terrance then held up a small pin that was also found inside. That was a little more difficult to explain. But why lie?

Light had used another scrap of the Death Note to kill Kyosuke Higuchi—one of seven board members (now all deceased) of a corporation known as the Yotsuba Group—after the task force had cornered him, accusing him in being the Third Kira. He managed to hide his kill from L, writing down the man's name by the paper in the watch. However, due to the man's escapades, the existence of the Death Note was finally revealed. Now it were mere convenience instead of hiding a piece in his wallet.

"A writing instrument," he truthfully said. "When you don't have a pen handy, blood will do quite nicely."

This seemed to unnerve Terrance and he paused momentarily, lost in thought. He cocked his head slightly, looked at Light. Light remained stoic. The leader of the Dragon Sect then placed all three items on the table in full view, said: "A very bizarre practise, Detective. There is a term for such a thing and it borders on mental illness, when someone enjoys the taste of their own blood."

Light blinked, shocked. He withheld a smile, the thought humorous. At first, he was literally speechless, he never expected such a connection, then said: "I think you are referring to the term _Vampirism_? But no, I do not enjoy sucking my own blood. It is exactly what I said it is, nothing more and nothing less." He extended a hand out. "Please, may I have it back?"

Terrance nodded, offering Light to take everything back himself. Light did so, standing up, crossing over, picking the items up, and putting the piece of the Death Note and the needle back in the hidden compartment, then slipped the watch back on his wrist. Now, he felt more confident. He sat back down. The Dragon Sect leader then snapped his fingers and Nazareth also returned Light's gun, without the magazine, and his baton, as a show of good faith that the man trusted Light. And Light thanked him.

But Terrance looked upset. He reached into his a pocket and produced Light's phone. Without batting an eye, he slid it across the table to Light with a more than a necessary push and it clanged against Light's untouched desert dish, shifting it. Light looked at it confused. But then it hit him, and Terrance asked, "What did you do to your phone? All the valuable information has been wiped, our expects have confirmed it. You did something to it when you unlocked it, your cleverness is second only to your unwarranted devotion to your station. However, since you have provided us valuable information, I will overlook this." He used a napkin to wipe his mouth, then rose from his chair. "I'm not one for deserts. You may finish your soufflé, then you may return to Tigressa's quarters, if you wish? Apparently, she has taken a liking to you, it seems." The man produced the smallest of smiles.

Had there been another camera in her quarters when he and Tigressa had sex?

Light felt uneasy, glanced over at Tigressa, then back. He stood up. "Have I done anything to offend you?"

"You haven't, but my brother was a practitioner of _Vampirism_ , as you call it, when he was a teenager, and this watch has stirred up old, unpleasant memories for me." Terrance looked dejected for a moment. "My brother was so enamoured with the practice that he bleed to death one night from it. I found him covered in blood in his bed. I found out later that he was member of some strange sect that engaged in blood drenching orgies."

"Yes, I've heard of such things," Light said. "Forgive me. Believe me when I say, I do not share your brother's interest."

"I would hope not, or I would instruct Tigressa to give you to one of the Den Assistant's to drive some sense into you." Light gulped, he knew exactly what that would entail, and would include something similar to what he saw with the man who was punished for lying to Tigressa, the man who was KF4's informant. "Good night, Light Yagami," Terrance said, and then turned to leave.

"Good night," Light replied in kind, and watched the man leave, with less energy than he had entered. Nazareth followed.

"I never knew that about him, I swear," Tigressa said. She had been mostly quiet for the whole night, saying only a few things here and there. Mostly she just listened as an observer and allowed Terrance and Light talk.

Light waved it off. "How could you? But it doesn't matter, I did what I needed to do."

_I got my watch back with the piece of the Death Note, that is the most important thing. I won't kill anyone just yet. I would be foolish to do so right now…To observe is the most prudent thing to do. Then I'll decide what to do next._

They both got up, and then left the dining hall.

_To be continued..._


	14. Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged

After Terrance Claw left the Dining Hall, he returned to his private quarters alone. Before departing, he told Nazareth to keep a close eye on Light Yagami.

Once inside, he dropped down into a chair within a seating foray and contemplated all manner of things for what felt like a good while. Things he wanted done or changed within the Dragon Sect, compartmentalizing everything in his mind. He then thought about the detective, and even the future of the Yukaza.

Fifteen minutes later, three raps came at his door, and he looked up from his reverie. Standing, he answered it.

On the other side in the hallway, stood a teen with blonde hair. He was shorter in height than Terrance by two feet. He didn't recognize the teen, but he was most likely a member of Mistress Tigressa's Den. The teen's name, Claw could not recall. The only teen that stood out amongst the rest was Riki, Tigressa's Prime Assistant. This was not Riki.

The teen smirked, and this unnerved Terrance. "Who are you? How dare you come here!"

The teen produced a small white notebook. Terrance gasped, and suddenly became civil. He welcomed the teen inside and shut the door. The teen looked around, nodding approvingly, obviously impressed by its lavish and splendour.

Immediately entering Terrance Claw's private domain, a person would see a large rotunda seating foray with couches and chairs, with a large widescreen television on the far wall. Further back was the bedroom with a bathroom, and across from it was a library, with a desk situated within. It doubled as the Master's office with all the amenities. Personal items were also laid about the place.

"Quite the place you have here," the teen said. He turned around. Terrance stood with a curious look on his face. "I can possess anyone I choose, remember that? And I chose to possess this boy, Aiden."

"Why not come to me like you always have?"

"Because I no longer wish to be a mere disembodied voice when I converse with you, although I can take physical form," Aiden replied. "But after recent events, things have changed. You have work to do. I've had interactions with Light Yagami before. Light Yagami is Kira, and he is an unusual entity. Light Yagami is not an owner of a Death Note, but he is in league with one; that scrap of paper found in his watch is proof. Other holder's of Note's cannot see the lifespan of one who is a keeper. And yet, I can see Light Yagami's lifespan. Like every human, their name, and the years they have left, float above their head like a time clock."

"What do you suggest?"

"Light Yagami is powerless right now and he knows it, so let us announce ourselves to him; confront him; and take Kira off his pedestal." Aiden held up the small white notebook. "You are under my protection, so if he tries to write your name—if he knows it—on that scrap of paper, you will not die. I mostly observe, but I will interfere if needed. Possession saves my energy. Besides, this boy is very accommodating. He and I have spoken internally, and he's told me many secrets. His lover Riki wants to leave the Yukaza. And as we both heard, so does Tigressa. They must both be punished."

"I agree. I'll have Nazareth collect them."

Aiden shook his head. "Have Nazareth separate Tigressa from Light Yagami only. They've grown attached to each other over their short period together. If Yagami cares for her even in the slightest, he won't jeopardize her safety—just in case he has something up his sleeve. Kira usually does. Did you know they had sex immediately after dining with you? It was quite intense, they were like two animals in heat." He chuckled nefariously. "When you separate Tigressa from Yagami, do not make it obvious. Tell her, she has a new client to question. While I deal with Riki, her Prime Assistant."

Terrance Claw said he would do what Aiden requested.

Aiden went to leave, and opened the door. Suddenly, on the other side in the hallway, stood Light Yagami with his hand up in the air, in a fist, as if about to knock. Aiden withheld a gasp.

HIs presence was completely unexpected, Terrance observed. _What is Light Yagami doing here now?_

"Hello…" Aiden said innocently.

"Hello," Light replied in kind. "Are you the houseboy?" The term was not politically correct these days, but obviously Light Yagami chose to use it for lack of a better term. Servant boys still existed in Japan, and were in high demand, (much like they were in China and Korea), and were hired out to help with family finances, and other things. The Yukaza was no different.

Aiden seemed to adjust to the said servant position because of Yagami's sudden mention of it. Terrance accepted it.

"Is _Master Claw_ in?" Aiden nodded and turned. Terrance Claw stood calm. Light bowed slightly. "Forgive me for coming here, Terrance. I wanted to apologize again for earlier, and I wish to discuss something else with you."

"Oh, you wouldn't have known about my brother, so paid it no mind," he said in response. "But please, come in, let us talk about the future. I believe our dinner conversion was cut much too short to discuss everything that was needed to be said. Aiden was just leaving, he has completed his chores."

"Yes, Master," Aiden said, and bowed. "I have duties to perform with Mistress Tigressa's Prime Assistant."

Terrance dismissed him, and Aiden left.

* * *

Aiden scowled in the hallway after he shut the door to Terrance's quarters. Light Yagami's visitation here had thrown him for a loop. But he did say that Kira always had a plan in mind. Did he plan to murder Terrance? No, he couldn't. Terrance was under his protection from the Death Note's effects by his own powers.

Apologizing was just a ploy. Yagami was up to something.

Riki would have to wait. And he would have to leave Aiden to his own devices for now. He knew he had to observe this interaction between Terrance and Light Yagami first hand—and intercede if necessary.

* * *

Terrance gestured for Light to sit on one of the couches. As with Japanese tradition, Light was offered tea. But he declined. Terrance then sat in a chair, as host. If the guest didn't wish for tea, it was best none to be served.

"So, Light, what brings you here?" Terrance asked curiously.

"I wanted to apologize, first," Light began. "I also wished to offer you something I'd know you'd be very interested in, and it pertains to _Kira_. I have some valuable information that I think might be of high value to you."

Terrance crossed one leg over a knee and leaned back in his chair, interlocking his fingers. Light took that as the man being interested. "Go on, you have my attention," Terrance pressed.

But before Light said another word, another knock came at Terrance's door.

Terrance groaned annoyed under his breath.

"Excuse me…" he breathed, and got up to answer it, looking first through the peephole, which was a wise decision. He then swung the door open quickly. He growled, seeing who is was. Then: "Yes?" he demanded abruptly.

On the other side was Sai, one of the members of the Yukaza. He was also one of the first, Light observed, who he had encountered before his venture into this underworld.

"Forgive the intrusion, Master Claw," Sai said. "But I was sent to inform you that the NPA have made a pitch for Light Yagami. Apparently they are willing to bargain. Chief Tatami of the NPA asks for a reply."

Light stood up. "This was probably instituted by my father, the former chief of the NPA," he said. "He still has clout within the police office due to his years of service. Since my body was never found with the others, he assumes I'm still alive; kidnapped." _The 'ping' within the secret NPA servers had worked,_ he thought. _They got my message_. "But I don't wish to speak to him. I'm with the Yukaza now, he'll have to get use to that fact when I tell him." Light smiled, relishing in the good performance.

Sai heard, but looked to Terrance for an official answer. Then Terrance crooked a finger at the enforcer for him to come into his private quarters. He shut the door. He told him to stand next to the door. He didn't give Sai an immediate answer.

Light couldn't be sure, but he thought he heard Terrance Claw whisper something to Sai. With the look he observed on Sai's face, his body mostly hidden from view, Light knew something secretive had just been exchanged between the pair. Sai's body language then told Light that he was in trouble.

"Mr. Yagami," Terrance turned slowly, now with a gun in his hand. "Do you take me for a fool?"

Light looked at the gun and eyed Terrance Claw, bewildered.

"The information you provided was falsified. I knew this from the start. We have spies in every department within the NPA and DIET. I was informed very quickly that the IP address you provided relayed to a secured server operated by the NPA. If you think you were being clever, you are sadly mistaken. This underground complex is very much secure. Your clever scheme to initiate a beacon to hone in on this place didn't work. However, you did succeed in one thing: you did inform others that you were still alive, which is unfortunate. You are spy, but no ordinary spy. I know your secret, Detective Light Yagami—and it pertains to Kira." The Dragon Sect leader walked to Light and approached him with the gun pointed at Light's chest. "I'm afraid you're not what you appear to be…"

Terrance Claw raised the pistol and then whipped Light hard across the face. Light recoiled, and clutched the right side.

"You pretend to be something you are not. Kira is a god, not a man. No human has Kira's powers, especially someone like you!"

Light remained calm, straightening. There was no blood. He observed Sai standing near the door with a bizarre look on his face, as if mentally asking the question, What the hell is going on?

"Give me your watch! I want the piece of the Death Note!"

Suddenly, Sai clutched his chest. His face cringed and his teeth clenched. Then he collapsed to the floor. No doubt, the man just suffered a fatal heart attack.

Terrance Claw looked back. Distracted and shocked, Light used the opportunity and fought him for the gun. Easily overpowering the older man, Light pushed the leader down to the floor, and then pointed the gun at him.

"How quickly the tables turn," Light said. Terrance still looked shocked, as he looked at Sai's body. "He's dead, Terrance. Of a fatal heart attack. Kira has reigned his judgement upon him and found him guilty of unforgivable sins."

_I don't know how you did it, Misa, but for once, thank you…_

Terrance shook his head in disbelief. "That's impossible! You had no time to write his name down, and you didn't know it. Sai is an alias." Light gave a look of indifference when Terrance looked back at him. "No, it wasn't you," the leader of the Dragon Sect then said, appearing to come to a realization. "It was that damn Misa Amane, somehow. The Second Kira!"

Light smirked. "No, Terrance, Kira is omnipresent, and it is time to realize your mistake. You are dealing with the genuine article. _I, am, Kira!_ The one and only, the Alpha and the Omega, and the one who will be standing on the bones of the old world after I cleanse it. I will judge everyone, and those who I deem worthy to live in my brand new world will survive. You are well informed, Terrance—or whatever is your real name is. You know about the Death Note. How? It's a secret, only to the Kira Task Force."

"Your performance was flawless, Light Yagami. Like an actor, wanting to join a play troupe." Terrance ignored Light's question. "Are you going to kill me? Will you write my name in the Death Note? On the piece you have hidden in your watch?"

"Answer me first, how do you know about the existence of the Death Note?"

"Because I told him," came a disembodied voice. It echoed, followed by a chuckle. The voice and laughter seemed to come from everywhere in gold-like fashion. Terrance looked beyond Light, then Light turned. They both saw it, and a bright white light then began to manifest itself in the middle of the room near the seating foray.

Light shielded his eyes from the illuminance, but as the brightness vanished, what stood before him was unexpected. Before him stood something not unlike an angelic being, and in human form, wearing all white.

It was a small boy just over four feet tall. He had white hair and his skin tone was fair. He wore a tunic, not unlike that worn by ancient Roman boys. With it, a black belt with a book pouch hung from his left hip. He also wore fingerless gloves, and sandals, and a collar wrapped around his neck with a dangling crucifix. The only thing he was missing were wings. If this being was attempting to mimic an angel, it was unconvincing. In his hand was a small, white book.

"Greetings, Light Yagami, or shall I address you as _Lord Kira_?" the angelic boy chuckled. "My name is Morph, we have never been formerly introduced, but I have met you before during the Jasper Yuta Affair, if you recall."

Light gasped, his thoughts immediately recalling the affair.

He remembered the Jasper Yuta Case, and its conclusion happened back when L was alive.

The entire affair began when he was ten years old when he helped put away _The Child Butcher of Japan_ , with his son, Jasper. Light had been kidnapped when he was ten, and would have been killed by Yoma Yuta if it wasn't for the collective efforts of the NPA, their top notch SAT team called the _Knight's Templar_ , and his own father. Jasper Yuta, had most recently escaped from a mental institution, and came after him in revenge. In the end, the entire affair ended positivity for the Kira Task Force, and him.

"Forgive me if my appearance startled to you," Morph said. "I can be anything I wish, like Loki of Norse lore. But I chose this form because it's less intimidating. I've been observing you for quite some time, Light Yagami. Your methods are harsh, and your original reason for using the Death Note has swayed you. You have become the very thing you wish to eradicate in the Human World."

Light lowered the gun. He knew it would not harm this being. But he stood proud. "Those who stand in my way will be eliminated. Sacrifices must be made for my new world order to come to fruition."

"A stringent response, but I wouldn't expect anything less. Does that even mean the innocent? Friends, family—those who hunt down criminals like yourself?" It was a rhetorical, Light didn't answer. "But, of course, you don't see yourself as a criminal. You see yourself as a saviour. Psychopaths of their own making rarely see their faults, and they press, fulfilling their own agenda by crushing the meek."

Light eyed Morph, and curled his lips with disdain. _I'm not a psychopath, I'm helping the world!_

But he quickly calmed himself and buried his anger. He shrugged, then smiled humorously. Then: "What can I say? You seem to have me figured out," he lied. "Call me whatever you'd like, it doesn't matter to me. Morph, is it? What brings you to the Human World? You don't appear to be an atypical Shinigami from what I've seen; they are all ugly creatures."

"That's because I'm not a Shinigami. I'm a member of _The Brigade of Life_ , and I am the last one of my kind. Unlike the Shinigami, and the gods of deaths with their multitude of Death Notes, there is only one Life Note." He held up his small white book. Morph seemed to hold its protection in high regard.

On the front cover was a crested cross, the religious sign of Christianity.

Light knew from his studies in ancient religions that the cross pre-dated back to Ancient Sumeria, some 4,500 BCE. It was one of the oldest cultures the world knew with a written language. The symbol of the cross was attached to an obscure Mesopotamian deity associated with shepherds during that time. The deity's symbol was only later adopted by Christians.

Light didn't need to have it explained what the _Life Note_ could pertain to. If the opposite was the Death Note, then it was the restorer of life. Could it restore a person's life by writing their name in it? If so, who would Morph bring back? What was the time span in which a person could be resurrected? If the _Life Note_ was that powerful, Light had to take possession of it.

A frightful notion crossed his mind: _Could L be brought back to life?_

But instead, he asked: " _The Brigade Of Life?_ But you just said you were the last your kind?"

"The story of my people is an ancient one. However, do you remember your biblical lore? You're an intelligent man with a great deal of knowledge at your finger tips. Do you know the story of LEGION?"

_LEGION—For we are many_. Those words rang through Light's mind. It was of biblical belief that multiple beings could live symbiotically within a single host.

"LEGION was a demon or demons that possessed a man, Christian biblical lore proclaims," Light recalled. "According to scripture—I used to attend church with my family when I was younger—Jesus met a man on a mountain top, suffering, and in distress, and he asked the man his name, and the man replied: ' _My name is LEGION, for we are many_ '. Feeling the evil within the man's soul, knowing he couldn't be saved, Jesus left him to die, and to suffer, because he had an impure spirit. There are many occurrences in the Bible where men with evil hearts cannot be saved."

Morph chuckled. "How many people have you killed with the Death Note? Hundreds? Thousands? And you do it all with a _good heart_? Can _you_ be saved? _Will_ you be saved? You truly believe what you're doing is right for the world. I can see your Time Clock above your head—Shinigami call it a Life Span—but the terminology is essentially the same. You don't own a Death Note, but you are still Kira. And yet, you're nothing more but a puppet to a Shinigami master."

"Believe what you will, but Kira has made a difference," Light said strongly. "I won't apologize for saving this world from the evils that plague it. Since Kira's awakening, wars have stopped, crime is down, and people envision a safer world. They can walk the streets now with confidence. Kira has played an intricate role in the world. I am not a puppet, I am the saviour of this world!"

"Under the guise of fear," Morph retorted. "You're nothing but a fear-monger, Light Yagami. Do you believe you are superior to others? You may be smarter than most humans, but do you think you have right to judge them like a god? If you do, then that only makes you delusional person. What gives you that right?"

"I saw an opportunity. Something needed to be done. How do you see me? Do you think I'm evil?" Light extended his arms wide as if to mimic the wings of an angel. "Judge not, lest ye be judged, as biblical scripture says. Take a look at everything Kira's accomplished. And there is still a lot more to be done. If you are aware of everything that has transpired up until now, and if you were a judge me…how would you judge society's as whole today? Weigh the scale of balance. Tell me?"

Morph frowned. "Do not play semantics with me, Light Yagami. There is a grey area when it comes to good and evil, and you've crossed it numerous times in using the Death Note. The Shinigami use the Death Note to take life to live, that is their policy. I can't blame them for that. Ryuk, was bored when he dropped his Death Note to the Human World. That was not the first time one was dropped, but you were the first human to use it so aggressively. I viewed the timeline, your future has been dramatically altered."

Light cocked an eyebrow. "Explain?"

"In an alternative timeline, you were killed in gunfire between two rival street gangs when you were walking home from high school, the very day you found the Death Note. You took a different route that day, which changed your life forever." Light blinked shocked. "So, indeed, when you found the Death Note, it increased your lifespan. That is not the Shinigami way. The entire space/time continuum was altered that day. The future, changed. Ryuk obviously didn't look into the future before he dropped it."

"Ryuk said is was a random drop," Light said, a little taken aback by the news he had just been told. "He said nothing about altering future events…"

Morph eyed Light. "Ryuk was clueless. But there was nothing random about where it landed. You see, because the rotation of this planet moves with a predictable frequency, I was able to alter the Death Note's trajectory. It was originally headed to somewhere in North America, to New York City. But I changed it, and allowed it to fall on the grounds of your high school. I wanted you to find it, Light Yagami. Because I knew _you_ could make things _interesting_ …"

"I'm confused, what are you saying? That it wasn't a random drop and that _you_ wanted _me_ to pick it up?" Light formulated a few thoughts in his mind, but he was still confused. "But your previous argument was that I had no right to judge my fellow humans with the Death Note. Now you say I was chosen? You contradict yourself, Morph. I don't believe you. Unless it was you who changed the timeline, saw a different future, and wanted this future to come to pass? Why?"

Morph gave a sinister smile. "Because I was bored, too. Now, I can have a little fun. And I did so with Jasper Yuta and his friends. Now, I can do so again with you. If you think me sadistic, you are wrong. Everyone gets tired of tediousness. With the _Life Note_ , I'm going to undo everything you've done, restore to life everyone you've killed, including the very man you refer to as _L_. I'm going to reverse the timeline, and then give your Death Note to someone else. It's time to start anew."

_To be continued..._


	15. The Secret of the Life Note

With the task force elsewhere, Misa Amane was left alone at home.

Miniature surveillance cameras mounted on lampposts in the area that showed the mass slaughter by the Yukaza against the NPA SAT, and field teams, had been uploaded to NPA servers less than fifteen minutes ago. With Light's backdoor access and alert system, Misa received an instant message about them—and she was able to review them. The cameras were labeled as "pin" cameras, so they were so small, it was no wonder the Yukaza hadn't seen them.

It was part of a pilot project, she remembered Light had mentioned it. The NPA had permission to use surveillance cameras much like traffic cams to track movements of criminal activity without public knowledge.

Misa was able to review all seven uploaded videos, including the footage with Light defending himself against two attackers. Light had managed to kill one of them, shooting a hefty tall man in the head. But then Light was then rendered unconscious when he was pistol whipped by a smaller man behind a van. The camera just happened to be mounted on a lamppost next to the van, so she was able to see everything with near crystal clarity, even the small man's face. And with the Shinigami Eyes, she was also able to see his name. After Light was rendered unconscious, the smaller man then dragged him into the very same car he had brought Light to the site in, then drove away. Yet, she couldn't get obtain a license plate number, it was too obscured by wear and tear.

The videos were so fresh that not even Light's father had seen them yet.

The moment she saw the footage, however, she collected the Death Note, and wrote the smaller man's name down in large capital letters: UNO TETSUO. Forty-seconds after she did, she knew the man would die from a heart attack. He was probably already dead by now, since she had written his name down over three minutes ago.

 _No one hurts my dear Light_ , she vowed.

But she was still worried. The Dark Web wasn't yielding anything to Light's possible location. There was usually some talk about criminal activity regarding the Yukaza, but everything was silent—as if it was taboo to discuss such things anymore. She often used the Dark Web to hunt down some of the most dangerous criminals that attempted to hide from the public eye.

The Yukaza used alias's to keep their real identities a secret and this thus frustrated Light. Crime was increasing slightly again because of this trick and there was little either of them could do about it. She needed a face to use the Shinigami Eyes and just viewing a criminal's face on line would render a name.

But people were going through both the open and dark webs, and erasing data, deleting social media accounts, and any pictures of the Yukaza—articles, and anything else, too. So, she had to relay on the NPA database. When she quickly exhausted that list, she needed to go to other resources. Her worse fear was disappointing Light.

She huffed, and groined, and vented her frustration by throwing a pillow across the room. It passed through Ryuk, the Shinigami, and hit the back wall of their bedroom in the apartment with a soft thud. All her efforts and she still couldn't locate Light.

"Oh Light, Oh Light, where art thou, my sweet Light?" she said, paraphrasing an old Shakespearean line.

"Have you tried calling his cell phone? Or pinging it? Or whatever you humans do these days to track yourselves?"

"That's the first thing I did," she said with some annoyance to Ryuk's questions. "Light has a tracker on his phone for emergencies such as this, but it's been turned off—or maybe he's in a dead zone? Knowing the Yukaza, they've probably gone underground." Misa looked at the big, bulging eyes of Ryuk. They were like looking into two black holes. "Can you sense him?"

Ryuk shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. Even though he has a piece of the Death Note, it's not a tracking device. You own the Death Note, I'm connected to you. If the situation was reversed, I could locate you. This is an unfortunate situation."

Misa agreed. "I hope Light is okay and the Yukaza aren't torturing him for information? I remember once, me and a friend kidnapped this boy in grade school and we "play"-tortured him. We put a blindfold on him, stripped him, and did horrible things to him, mostly tickled him in sensitive places. But we found out he really, really liked it. We ended up breaking him."

"Breaking him?"

"He's in an institution somewhere. Who knows? And who cares!" She shrugged her shoulders. "The only person I care about is Light. I love him so much! Can't you please help, Ryuk? Sniff him out—anything?"

"I'm not a dog, _but…_ " The Shinigami appeared to contemplate something. "Okay, I'm not supposed to tell anyone about this, but there may be a way to see him, and possibly get his location. There's no guarantee. It may work, or it may not. Call it an experiment—you may recognize some landmark…"

He reached into his skeleton satchel and pulled out what looked like a miniature black sphere, then he made it grow to half the size of a bowling bowl. It was jet black and very reflective. Misa looked into it and could see herself as if looking into a mirror.

"Is that what it looks like?"

"Every Shinigami carries one of these, it helps communicate with the Shinigami World. In my world, we can look down upon the Human World with much larger versions, like watching television. This version is called a _Portable Orb_."

The Shinigami passed it to her, and she cupped in her hand. It was heavy. "Like a crystal ball, right?"

"I guess so, but you don't need incantations or special words or scary gypsy women to make it work. All a Shinigami has to do is think of someone they wish to see or find and it instantly it projects an image onto its surface. It kind of works like a Death Note, you need to envision a person's face and their name to make it work."

She asked to see Light, and Ryuk waved a hand over its surface. Instantly, albeit a little blurry, Light Yagami's image appeared. He was standing in a room with two other people, an older man, and a young boy. Only Light's name and lifespan was showing.

Pointing, she asked, "Who are they?"

But Ryuk didn't know.

* * *

Light sneered and cursed. "You can't do that!" He said it with such anger that he spit out a little. "You'll ruin everything _Kira_ has done! Everything _Kira_ has put forward! This world needs a change and thanks to the Death Note, _Kira_ is that change. If you use the _Life Note_ to reverse my work, the world will once again fall into disarray. And even if _Kira_ does manage to kill the same criminals once again, _Kira's_ reputation will be severely tarnished, as to say that _Kira_ is a fraud!"

Morph smirked, holding the Life Note in hand. "Are you _begging me_ , Light Yagami?" He began to laugh like an arrogant child. "I'm kidding. And besides, even if I could restore people back from the dead—that it would be too much work. I would need to collect every single Death Note you and Misa Amane have used, erase their names, while duplicating them in the Life Note."

Light seemed to breath a sign of relief.

"There is a limitation with the Life Note. A person can only be revived within seventy-two hours, three days after they are declared dead, and the cause of their death must be known, written down, so the Life Note can reverse the issues that have lead up to their death. However, there is a short-cut, but only Shinigami has that knowledge. If you don't know it, I can't tell you."

Light's confidence grew. "The Death Eraser," he said bluntly.

This time Morph was the one surprised. "How do you know about _The Death Eraser_? Ryuk told you, didn't he?"

Light nodded. He explained that it was a rare item and each eraser could only be used once due to the large implications of the Butterfly Effect. The effect whereas if you quash a bug in the past, it can have huge repercussions in future events. If you save a person's life, then that person could grow up to become a mass murderer and kill millions…"

Light then went on to explain: a perfect example was the story of Adolf Hitler. A priest saved Adolf from drowning when he was a boy, Hitler then grew up to cause of deaths of millions of Jews in the Second World War. It was a what-if scenario. If Hitler had drowned, would the Second World War even have happened? Or would another tyrant have just taken his place? Unlike Hitler, Light didn't see himself that way. If Morph had indeed altered history so he could pick up the Death Note—even saved his life—he wasn't anything like a dictator. He killed the worse scum the Human World ever came to know, and he felt the world was better off for it.

"What else did this rogue Shinigami tell you? Did he tell you where you may end up after you die? No one who uses a Death Note can go to Heaven nor Hell. They end up—"

Light didn't let Morph finish. "That isn't important. My goal is to make the Human World a better, and safer, with the Death Note. I've already come to terms that my very soul will be sacrificed for a great good—my morality gone."

Morph laughed again. "Oh, if you only knew where humans who use a Death Note actually end up, your decision to use it would weigh differently." The being mused for a moment. "Perhaps, you'd like to have a glimpse?"

"No," Light said flatly. "I have no interest in knowing."

"Are you sure? It's quite fascinating and surprising."

"No," Light repeated.

"Ah, I was so engrossed in our conversion I almost forgot about our wonderful host," Morph smiled, and waved Terrance to his side.

Terrance walked past Light without incident and came to stand next to the clandestine being.

"Terrance and I have formed a pact, which is why I am attached to him at the moment. I also helped build this underground facility. For a price, he and I are partners, and he is under my protection. His name is written in the Life Note. You see, if you write a person's name in the Life Note, they cannot be killed by the Death Note. The Life Note was created to nullify the Death Note a long time ago because the Shinigami enjoyed going on rampages in killing people, almost eradicating the entire human race. So, the Life Note was created to save humans from extinction. I've lived for thousands of years, and have done battle with many Shinigami over this time—they can get vicious if you eliminate their very way of life. Without taking human lifespans, Shinigami crystallize and die—their sole purpose is to take life. So, if they save a life, they instantly die. But you already know that with Rem, Misa Amane's first Shinigami. Very clever how you manipulated her into committing suicide for you of all people."

Light smirked. "Well, if Shinigami only did their job—but only kill criminals—then the world wouldn't need Kira, would it?"

Morph took a moment, then nodded. "You have a valid point," he said. "So, do you think acting in accordance with a Shinigami justifies your actions because of the laziness of a few?" Morph waved a finger. "It was a rhetorical question. Humans are unable to comprehend the notion. Their morality gets in the way every time."

"So, what now?" Light clicked the safety on for the gun he took from Terrance and then slipped into the front of his trousers. He had decided to change into more comfortable attire before coming to Terrance's quarters, and found a matching dress shirt and trousers in Tigressa's wardrobe. She was currently in her quarters while Light was here. "Do we go our separate ways now?"

Morph smiled. "That is an excellent thought. I've grown weary of this place, and I've been thinking about departing for some time."

Terrance turned, said: "But we have a pact? You'd help me build the Yukaza to its former glory and I would become your anchor in this world." But before anything was said further, Morph plunged his entire left arm into Terrance's chest and ripped out his heart. The Dragon Sect leader's body stood frozen, the man's face's mouth agape with shock. Terrance Claw then dropped like a stone to the floor dead. Morph held his still beating heart. He looked at it for a moment, before crushing it—blood oozing out.

Light was slightly taken aback by the gruesome sight, but he didn't flinch a muscle. Morph dropped Terrance's crushed heart and then flicked blood off his hand, his powers burning off excess from his clothes.

"I thought he was under your protection? That his name written in the Life Note?"

"It was, and as I said, I safeguarded him from dying if his name was ever written in the Death Note. I never said he couldn't die from any other method. You humans are so arrogant into believing we gods care anything about you. As long as we get what we want, we allow you the privilege of existing. That's why the Shinigami Ryuk hasn't killed you yet. He enjoys the entertainment you and Amane afford him."

"I already gathered that. And that's why I intend to afford him even more entertainment when Kira brings in a new world order."

Morph outstretched his arms. "And I will enjoy observing you, however, since I just murdered my host, I will need to find a new one." He cocked his head, as if an idea formed. "You wouldn't be interested, would you? You currently do not own a Death Note…" But when Light didn't answer, Morph shrugged. "Why would you? It would contradict your whole reason for being. Someone who owns a Death Note cannot own the Life Note at the same time, just for clarification. They are two sides of coin. And one day, the Death Note will be yours again."

Light gasped, as if the future had just been foretold. Was it a slip?

Morph's form began to fade.

"But before I leave you, Light Yagami, I wish to say this: Even though our acquittance was short, we will meet again. I will guarantee it. You're a very interesting human being, and I will enjoy watching Kira create a new world."

And with that, Morph vanished in a flash of bright light taking the Life Note with him.

Light looked around.

Terrance Claw, the leader of the Dragon Sect of the Yukaza, was now dead. Once his body was discovered, they would immediately finger him. The same for Sai, who was folded over next to the front door, dead of a fatal heart attack. This was not part of his overall plan. His plan was to get information on the workings of the Yukaza, including profiles, and then take them back to write names down in the Death Note, from afar.

He still had no idea where he was or how to get above ground. After they discovered this gruesome scene, he may never get out of here alive.

He had one option left—Tigressa. He had get back to her.

_To be continued..._


	16. Escaping With Haste

Tigressa began to get worried. Light had left to speak with Terrance over an hour ago, and still had not returned. And yet, she knew Terrance would wish to get assurances of Light's newly sworn loyalty to the Yukaza, other than what he had already provided.

It should only have been a short conversion, or that's what Light had told her. But as it dragged into an hour, she wondered if she should follow him with an excuse to attend Terrance's quarters—an excuse she was momentarily at a lost to think up.

Light had told her to stay in her quarters until he returned, a decision she was fine with. But within twenty minutes of his leaving, she had begun to pace her quarters with a foreboding that filled her thoughts with worry that something was wrong.

She distracted herself with images of Light when they made love, but that only made her blush. She hoped for him to return soon.

She no longer had any interest in what she had done over the past seven years. She no longer wanted to "question" people for information in a matter than engaged in sadomasochism and rape. And she admitted, she had raped Light when she and Riki had questioned him. But Light was so strong-minded, he didn't yield or brake under the pressure. And, in that, she thought she had fallen for him. It was reverse of Stockholm Syndrome. The captor usually fell for their torturer. But in this case, it was the other way.

Before Light had left, she managed to find him suitable causal attire in the way of a pair of dark trousers and a dress shirt that fit.

Light looked very debonair—black seemed to suit his personality very well. He also took with him his baton which he strapped around left thigh underneath his pants. If he needed any protection, he at least had that.

There was just something about Light that she found attractive, in a dark sort of way. She slept with him, because she felt a yearning, and a pent up womanly urge that had gone unsatisfied for far too long. She questioned, even tortured, people to make them talk, using tools of her trade, but she always held a certain distance from business and pleasure—but no longer.

Light Yagami had finally made her feel like a woman. Even after all the horrible things she did to him, treating him like a toy, he was able to forgive her, and to deliver warmth and a passion, and to make her feel that there was still love in her heart.

"Oh Light, please come back to me safely," she said. "I want to leave this place, and I want to leave it with you…"

Suddenly, a chaotic series of knocks rapped on the front door of her quarters. Is it Light? She rushed to the door and opened it, but instead of Light, Riki stood at the threshold. He was panting as if he had been running quickly. He had a concerned look.

She asked him what was wrong. And he replied, "Mistress, the entire complex is in an uproar. Rumour has it that Light Yagami has murdered the Master, and another member of the Yukaza, while attending the Master's quarters. Aiden is telling everyone that he was witness to the entire event—screaming bloody murder, as if possessed. It isn't like him."

Tigressa quickly pulled Riki inside and shut the door. "Tell me more," she insisted.

He did, reporting the rumour in full that he overheard from Aiden's shouts. Aiden claimed to be in the Terrance Claw's quarters at the time, as a houseboy, cleaning. Aiden claimed he saw Light wrestling Sai's gun away from him, shoot the Master in the chest, and then murder Sai with an unknown attack. Aiden just managed to escape before Light Yagami started to go after him.

Tigressa steadied herself. "I don't believe it! He wouldn't do such a thing! He would never jeopardize our plans like that. Riki, Light and I had made plans to escape together. I know the exit out of the complex, a person could get lost if you don't know the way."

Riki gasped, then: "Please, Mistress—take me with you!" he pleaded with hands cupped together. "I hate this place, I want to leave! I want to see the world outside this underground dungeon. I don't remember much of my old life, but that doesn't matter. I don't want to live down here anymore! Please, I want to go with you two!"

"I understand, and yes, you can come with us. Of course!"

Riki reached into a pocket and brought out a USB stick. "I brought this for the detective," he said. "If Yagami said no to me leaving with you, then I know this would convince him otherwise. A bargaining chip, let's say. Here, it's a dossier I downloaded from the Dragon Sect computer database. It contains all our members with pictures and their real names, minus us. If we are to escape this hellhole, then no one can know we were ever involved. Yagami can take this information to the police."

Tigressa took it. "Good thinking, Riki," and she smiled. "You're a smart kid. I would never have thought of that." She ruffled his hair like he was her own son. "And maybe, soon, we can began to use our real names again…"

Suddenly, a second series of chaotic raps sounded at the front door. She waited for a moment, asked who it was—when Light's voice sounded. She immediately opened it, he entered, shutting the door behind him. He looked a little worse for wear.

"Terrance Claw is dead," were his first words, then he noticed Riki was also in Tigressa's quarters.

"We know," Tigressa and Riki said in unison. Riki told him that his friend Aiden was telling everyone.

"Rumour has it that _you_ murdered him and Sai, an enforcer, in cold blood," Riki inquired.

"Knowing Nazareth, he'll come for you—and he'll be out for blood," Tigressa said with great concern. "Did you really kill them?"

"Let's just say our barter didn't do so well," he said vaguely, leaving things up in the air. "We have to get out of here now!"

"Riki's coming with us," she said, then produced the USB stick. She told him what it contained, giving it to him. Light's eyes lit up as if finding a motherlode of gold. "You can take it to the NPA and use that information to hunt them down, and arrest them."

Light smiled with a sinister grin. "Thanks kid, this'll be a huge help in wiping out a large part of the Yukaza once and for all, people _Kir_ —I mean, the NPA have been looking for quite some time."

Riki smiled big. "I'm glad I can help. I've been wanting to pay these bastards back for a long time. They took me from my family and forced me to engage in deplorable acts no child at any age should have to endure or facilitate upon others. And I have to apologize to you—for what I did to you during your evaluation. If I could take it back, I would."

Light's eyes narrowed and he smiled, as if issuing forgiveness wordlessly.

"What's done is done, kid," he said, "and besides, I've come to terms with certain things that I've been wrestling with for some time." Light put a hand on Riki's shoulder. "I always thought I knew who I was, but both of you have opened my eyes to new things, and to new experiences. I have no idea why I'm telling you this, but it feel better telling someone. I don't know how to explain it, and frankly, it's a complete change from my usual self, but thank you both, and…" —he held up the USB stick— "…this will come in handy. Let's call it a revenge a long time in the making. You'll both be greatly rewarded for this, I guarantee it."

Tigressa gave him a strange look. Light merely smiled.

She shrugged, then asked, "So, what do you we do now?"

Just then, a third series of knocks came at her door. But before she could ask who it was, Nazareth demanded she open up.

She put a finger to her lips, and then told both Light and Riki to head in her bedroom.

"How dare you disturb me! I'm not descent. I just came from a shower. If her words attempted to make the large enforcer on the other side of the door feel uncomfortable, it wasn't working. Nazareth demanded that she get dressed and then to answer the door.

Instead, she used that time to show Light and Riki to her bed. She pulled back the bed skirt and told them both to hide underneath. There was just enough room for the both of them. They slipped under and was told to be absolutely quiet. Both agreed.

After stripping, Tigressa retrieved a housecoat, doused her hair, and then answered the door.

"What is it, Nazareth?" She spoke angrily. "I just got out of the shower when I heard you knocking."

"Forgive the intrusion, Mistress. Do you know where the detective is?" He seemed to look around the room, as if hoping to see something that wasn't proper. Her bedroom doors were open, her heart-shaped bed clearly seen.

"No, I do not. Light Yagami, the gentleman that he is, declined my offer to stay in my quarters—subject to the Master's offer. He was given separate quarters somewhere in the Residential District, but not near here. I imagine he is being show those quarters now?" Her eyes turned cold. "You have disturbed me. The Master shall hear about this when I speak with him."

"You cannot speak with a deadman, Mistress," Nazareth's tone became quite harsh. "He was found with a large hole in his chest and Sai was also found dead. The cause of _his_ death is still unknown. When was the last time you saw Light Yagami, Mistress?"

He tried to push into her quarters, but she stood her ground. She pushed back, but he insisted. He ordered half a dozen men he had brought with him to search her quarters from top to bottom.

She protested, but Nazareth grabbed her by the back of the hair and yanked her back. "You and the detective have gotten too close, and I'm afraid you've been compromised," he said. "The Master is/was the leader of the Dragon Sect, but there are many other sects within the Yukaza to join. If we find the detective here, I'll kill you myself."

They all had radios, and Nazareth's radio sounded. "Possible sighting of Yagami," a male voice said, and a location was given. It was just down the hall. A man was at the foot of Tigressa's bed, his hand reaching for her bed skirt, when Nazareth called them all back, and told them to hunt down the detective—shoot to kill.

Nazareth apologized for the intrusion, told her to remain in her quarters, and then slammed the door. Tigressa locked it.

She went back to the bed and told them it was safe to come out. Light and Riki slid out from under the bed, standing.

"They'll be back," she said. "Nazareth isn't fooled a second time. One of his men was probably spooked and thought they he saw you, Light. But, be honest, did you kill Terrance? What _really_ happened?"

Light was silent for a moment. "How can I explain this? There are forces in this world that are beyond comprehension, one of whom is Kira. You both know I'm a member of the Kira Task Force sworn to hunt him down and, if possible, execute him for his crimes of mass murder. He sees murder as a justifiable way to achieve his goal of world peace. Without war and/or criminality, Kira believes, the world can finally advance to a more prosperous way of existence. I have witnessed some of Kira's most heinous atrocities and killings, one of whom, if you know Kira's method of thinking…he found a way to get Terrance's real name. I don't know how, but he must have some sort of omnipresence or ESP power to find people and judge them for their crimes. Terrance must have been a particularly evil man for what happened to him to occur. He had his heart blown out of his chest and crushed."

Tigressa and Riki gasped. "Kira is a very powerful being," Riki said. "He must be feared. Kira must have other ways than a heart attack to kill people, that has to be the only explanation for the Master's heart to explode?"

Tigressa nodded. "But will Kira come after us? We're members—former members—of the Yukaza. And we've done things that Kira would consider horrendous and abominable. I'm afraid, if he gets our real names, he'll kill us both."

Light waved away her thoughts. "No, I don't think so. He only goes after high-end criminals. Consider this: think of a Hydra. You chop off one head and two more grow back. Kira would use this methodology to go after the body of a criminal organization, not its lesser members—if you forgive the analogy. He kills the body, and the snakes from the Hydra fall. He might not be able to get them all, but he never wavers in his pursuit to clean up the world of every last ounce of criminality."

"You're seem to know an awful lot about Kira, like you know him intimately," Riki said. "But being a member of the Kira Task Force, you obviously have a lot of insight into him. You're a very smart person, detective."

"Indeed," Light agreed.

Tigressa dressed proper as Light had talked.

She stuck her head out the door and looked both ways. "The coast is clear. Come with me, I know the way out of here. But we have to hurry, Nazareth will have the entire complex on us very soon."

Tigressa then went and grabbed a gun for Light to use. He checked it; it was working. Light's gun, whom Terrance had given back him without the magazine, when checked, was missing its firing pin. If he tried to use it, even with a magazine, it would malfunction in the heat of battle. He had discarded it as soon as it was discovered.

Light cocked the working gun. "Let's go!"

* * *

As for a Shinigami, Ryuk had to be one of the stupidest gods of deaths Misa had ever come to know. Rem was vastly smarter than this fool. It was like Ryuk had the intelligence of a child, and had absolutely no life experiences in use of the Death Note. How on earth Ryuk managed to trick the Shinigami King, a superior being—the absolute ruler of the Shinigami Realm—into giving him a second Death Note, was dumbfounding.

In one small way, Ryuk and Light were alike—they were able to manipulate people into getting what they wanted, tricking people into ignoring their internal instincts. Misa had heard of people who had the _suave_ to pull it off, and Light was one of those people. He could use his wit and charm to persuade anyone to do whatever he desired.

Before he left, she knew Light was feeling frustrated. He couldn't get-it-up for her. She joking sent him a video of two-men having sex, saying that if she couldn't excite him then maybe _they_ could. Now she regretted it. In retrospect, Light's job was obviously very stressful, and it was her job to relax him after a hard day. So, if she didn't entice him, then she wasn't doing her job, and so, it was her fault.

Light wasn't gay. In past times, he was an animal in bed. He liked women. And he never showed any signs of anything other.

They used protection, he said he didn't want kids yet. In the future, when Kira ruled the world, he would most likely want them. But right now, he didn't need the added responsibility, he said. Misa agreed, and was fine with that, as long as she was his partner in Kira's brand new world, she would do anything he desired.

But right now, she couldn't help him. And Ryuk was no help either.

Through the _Portable Orb_ , Misa watched as Light held hands with a slightly older woman followed by a young boy— _Hiro_ , was his name, seen over his head—unlike the other boy she saw earlier—as they ran through the maze-like corridors in some underground hideout. She didn't know where it was, otherwise she would send Ryuk to bring Light back. She could only observe.

But who was this hussy getting close to her Light?

She thought about writing her name down in the Death Note, but she didn't know if she was an innocent person whom Light was saving from the Yukaza or someone else? But obviously, she looked important to Light, so she didn't touch her. Her death right now could cause an unforeseeable consequence that could cost Light his life.

She could see Light was firing a gun behind him, the three of them were being chased by people out of frame of the Orb. So, all she could do was observe. It was like some real-time drama unfolding before her, and Light was the hero, acting like some sort of super agent, rescuing the girl from sinister forces. A villain who had been killed by mysterious clandestine force in a private room.

She had asked Ryuk who the boy in white was, but the Shinigami didn't know. The boy had murdered the older man in the room with Light, plunging his arm through his chest—then vanished. She couldn't hear anything that was being said because the Orb only showed images, not sound. She was able to pick up some of the conversion by reading lips, a trait she picked up being an actress. Whenever she forgot a line, the director would mouth it to her; then she'd continue with the rest of the script. But she missed most of it because the Orb only looked down at them from above, like an eye in the sky. An odd angle.

Light would be able to fill her in when he got home. If he got home? And that worried her the most.

Suddenly, a heavy set man went barreling into Light. He had come out of nowhere, and from a corridor off-screen. Light went flying back, slamming to the floor, skidding a ways back. It was then, those who were shooting at him from behind, surrounded him, their pistols drawn—six in all—came into frame. Then the big man came into view. Misa could see the man's name, but even with her Shinigami Eyes, something was wrong

He had a six word name and two of the names kept changing, as if there was an electronic glitch, and those two names kept altering their kanji. She knew that some kanji had many meanings and spellings.

The Death Note was useless unless she could decipher his real and full name, and with the correct spelling. The Death Note stated, if you wrote a name incorrectly, then the Death Note regarding that person would be rendered inert. But it wasn't explained, if the note couldn't be tried again, or if a person could no longer die if the name was repeatedly misspelled? As if he was hence, forever, protected? She asked Ryuk about it, but once again he had no clue.

Who was this man with an altering name? Misa had to find out.

_To be continued..._


	17. Light vs Nazareth

Light had the wind knocked out of him when he was hit unexpectedly. He struck the floor hard. If the saying was true, as American's say, he felt like he had collided with a Mac Truck. The impact was so intense, that he felt like he had broken something when he landed—possibly a rib. Suddenly, he was surrounded by six Yukaza, all wielding guns.

He put up his hands in a gesture of surrender. Dropping his own gun.

Nazareth approached, and Light figured that he was the "Mac Truck" that had sent him flying.

The Yukaza men parted for him, and the big man reached down, took hold of the sides of Light's shirt and yanked him to his feet, kicking Light's gun away. Light hissed from the pain from his ribs. The man was much larger than Light had remembered and taller. Light had to stand on tippy-toe to even come face-to-face, despite Light himself being taller than average.

Despite Nazareth's position, and Light's situation, Light felt anything but equal to him at the moment. _No one is equal to Kira._

Nazareth breathed on Light and his breath smelled fowl, and he looked like a very angry man.

"Looks like you have me, Nazareth, but now what?" Light challenged him. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Nazareth— _STOP!_ " Tigressa ordered. "Don't kill him!" She and Riki were now in the hands of two of the Yukaza members.

"Why shouldn't I?" He huffed out. "I should break his neck for what he did in killing the Master."

He didn't kill Terrance Claw, but how would he explain otherwise? What would he say? Kira did it? He didn't want any connection between himself and Kira. That wasn't something he wanted to fester in anyone's mind. That was how L had discovered his real identity in the first place, and he didn't need someone else coming to the same conclusion.

But would that be Nazareth's belief? As Kira, by-design, was a supernatural, godly being, with unknown powers. Terrance Claw's heart had appeared to explode from his chest. Kira's method of killing was a heart attack. The connection was uncanny.

"No! Kira did it! Light explained it to me!" Tigressa suddenly expressed.

_Damn it!_ Now he had no choice but to play with it. But he would be discreet.

"Put me down and I'll explain."

Light stared directly into Nazareth's eyes. Nazareth hesitated for a moment, but then dropped Light. Light landed steady. He then fixed his shirt, but he could see the top two buttons were ripped.

"She is correct," he said. He then felt his ribs. They were not broken, but were bruised from Nazareth's hit. "The Master knew I was a member of the Kira Task Force, and that I have inside knowledge no one else has. So, I can say, most assuredly, _Kira_ " _—or a power much likely Kira's—_ "was involved in Terrance Claw's death."

He said nothing about the boy Aiden who claimed to have witnessed Light killing Terrance. Aiden had left before. However, he knew Morph probably had a part to play in that. He wondered when and if he would ever see that supernatural being again with the _Life Note_? He never in his wildest dreams thought such a thing would exist. Yet the same could be said about the Death Note.

"I don't believe you!" Nazareth rebuked. "You are a detective with the NPA, and have sworn to eliminate the Yukaza. Sai was also found dead. I think you two conspired to infiltrate the Yukaza and then you killed Sai to cover your tracks. We've known for some time Tigressa wished to leave our community, and she was slated to be executed." Tigressa gasped shocked. "But the Master's death has altered these plans. You'll all be executed together in the most ruthless method we have."

"I don't normally wish ill upon people," Light lied, "but for you, I'll make an exception. I'd hope _Kira_ finds you, and kills you where you stand…"

_Misa, if you are was watching and listening, I want you to kill Nazareth! Now!_

Misa had the Shinigami Eyes, and she could see his real name. How she killed Sai, he would ask her later. Maybe she found some strange way to observe what was happening? With Ryuk and his elusiveness, he didn't doubt a way could be found.

_Ryuk…Do you have some strange new power you revealed to Misa, but not me?_

But when the allotted time passed, forty-seconds—then a minute—and Nazareth continued to stand still alive, Light mentally cursed.

Light grumbled under his breath. "However, of course, even deities make mistakes." He said audibly for Misa's sake. _You idiot girl—kill this bastard already! What are you waiting for?_ "And so do humans. I should know better than to rely on stupid people…"

Nazareth chuckled short. "It's funny, you speak as if you and Kira are the same?"

"Oh, there is big difference between Kira and I. For one, a deity wouldn't be so bold…"

He did the unthinkable, something very _bold_ for him. He reached down quickly and grabbed Nazareth's crotch, crushing it in his hand. Nazareth's eyes bulged, shocked by the action. He stood frozen on the spot like a statue. The pain must have been intense.

Light continued to squeeze hard, even twist and turn, venting out his frustration and anger upon the man.

Nazareth finally rallied his wits and pushed Light away.

Light staggered back a few feet. Nazareth cupped his groin, the enforcer's teeth clenched. Light then flicked his hand in the air, as if to throw off some unforeseen filth.

Then, using the distraction and shock of the others in his favour, he snatched a gun from one closest stunned Yukaza, and fired a volley of gunfire into their ranks, immediately killing three men, and injuring two others. Making sure not to hit Tigressa or Riki.

The last one, the one he snatched the gun from, ran away. Light fired at him, but purposely missed. He refused to shoot anyone in the back. Then he pistol whipped Nazareth hard across the face and knocked him out for the count.

"Come on!" Light quickly said, holding out his hand to Tigressa. "We need to get out of here! They'll be more of them, I'm sure of it. Those shots will probably bring a lot more Yukaza upon us. And that hit won't keep Nazareth down for long."

Tigressa grabbed Light's hand and they ran down the corridor, following their original path. Riki followed suit.

Using Tigressa's mental map, they managed to make it to Terrance Claw's private Arboretum Gardens. Entering the lush foliage, they knew they needed to get lost within. The Yukaza would be sure to follow.

Riki tripped over an unseen root a little ways after they entered, and fell to the ground. Light and Tigressa turned. Light was about to help Riki up—when it happened.

That was when Terrance Claw's pet Komodo Dragon, Kito, suddenly appeared from a thicket of bushes. The amphibian came out of nowhere, its tongue whipping out of its large mouth-trap like a whip. In shock, Riki remained still. In fact, he was frozen with fear.

Light told him to remain still, but it appeared to come instinctive for Riki.

Komodo Dragons were moderately fast over land. They could move up to 20 kph and had a bite ratio that could snap a human neck or limb within seconds. They came from the Indonesian Islands of Komodo—which is where the large lizard got its name. This tropical garden was a perfect setting for a habitant. No doubt Terrance Claw fed it on a regular bases, but the creature would always be hungry, and this particular Komodo Dragon, its bulk and girth, could easily swallow Riki whole.

"Riki, when I tell you, rise very slowly, and then move away," Light said. Riki nodded softly, not taking his eyes off the dragon. "It won't attack unless you're acting aggressive towards it," he added, as if to assure the teen. Riki nodded slowly.

"Kito!" Light called it. The creature turned around, very quickly. Light recalled the phrase for the Komodo Dragon to cease its attack, but he wanted it further away from Riki before he would recite it. So, he backed away, shouldering Tigressa with him. The Komodo Dragon etched forward with every step—that was Light's plan.

When the lizard was far enough away, he told Riki to follow his previous instructions.

Riki rose slowly and then backed away, hiding in the brush. Tigressa also moved away from Light as he kept the dragon's attention, moving left, as Tigressa moved right towards Riki.

Light waved his hands to make sure his movement kept its focus, which was successful.

Most lizards predatorily instincts catered to taste, even the surrounding air, with their tongues, and followed this method to track down their prey. However, a lizard, especially a Komodo Dragon, had very good eyesight. So, Light needed to keep it looking at him.

The only problem now was how he was going to get it to stop seeing _him_ as its next meal?

But he didn't have to wait long. Just then, Nazareth and five more Yukaza showed up, and the sudden collective made enough noise to wake the dead. It made Kito turn abruptly, his attention away from Light, and towards them.

Afar, Light saw Tigressa and Riki, and he gave them a series of hand gestures that told them to move further away from the area. He hoped they understood. He would do the same, now that the Komodo Dragon was distracted—its attention on the new intruders to its domain.

Of course, the Yukaza scrambled as Kito bolted towards them.

Nazareth avoided its nasty snapping jaws, but then Kito set its sights on another Yukaza, standing closer.

Kito pivoted its head and locked its massive jaws onto the Yukaza's man's leg. The man screamed, then Kito went into a barrel role, much like a crocodile in water, and within seconds ripped the man's leg clean off from the knee—the man's screams echoing the gardens.

Kito gulped it down, and then went after the rest.

When they were together again, next to the wooden bridge that arched over the river, flowing through the entire gardens, Light said to Tigressa: "I don't want you out of here. You and Riki need to escape this place. I'm out of bullets" —he threw away his gun— "and Nazareth is somewhere near-by. I'll distract him while you two flee."

"No," Tigressa said adamantly. "We're staying here with you. You mean too much to us, and we owe you our very lives." Riki concurred with a nod. "We don't know what we can do to help, but we're not leaving."

Light was about to protest when yet another very loud blood-curdling scream was heard.

The Komodo Dragon had obviously found another victim. That changed his mind. Kito was fast, and he didn't want the pair to become the lizard's next victim. He knew the code phrase to call Kito off, but even so. It was best to avoid the situation.

"Fine, but just stay—"

Just then, Nazareth came out a thicket of brush and pounced on Light, knocking him down.

They rolled along the ground, gripping each other's shirt.

Nazareth then delivered a series of punches that Light tried to block. One left hook got through and Light's head jerked back, hitting his head on something hard. Then Nazareth got to his feet with Light's shirt in one hand, and hauled him up.

Suddenly, Riki charged like a mad man and tried to intercede, shouting. Tigressa shouted for him to stop, but Riki ignored her, and grabbed Nazareth's left arm, trying to help Light, yanking on it. But the big man just grabbed the teen and tossed Riki away, like he was nothing more but a feather-weight object. Riki staggered back and then dropped, the back of his head hitting the trunk of a tree. Tigressa went to him to see if he was okay.

Light saw this, but then Nazareth grabbed Light's chin and snapped his attention forward. "Look at _me_ , boy!" he demanded of Light. "Don't worry at them! You need to think about the fight before you! You're not going to get out of here alive! I'll guarantee it!"

Light struggled against Nazareth's grip, and then slipped out of his shirt, nearly torn anyway, and broke away from Nazareth.

But it wasn't over, and it was only a temporarily reprieve. Nazareth then clutched both of Light's shoulders—the enforcer's grip was like two vices—raised him up in the air, and then tossed Light asunder, several feet. Light flew and landed in the river. He made a big splash down and sunk to the bottom. The depth of the river was five feet, Light learned, before he resurfaced.

Nazareth removed his own shirt, and Light finally saw the full tattoo the man had had on his torso that he had only seen a glimpse of when he first saw Nazareth in the storage room, when he was first brought to the complex. It was an enlarged version of the Dragon Sect symbol, a black and blood red snake, that wound all around his body. An enlarged version of what Riki had on his left arm.

Nazareth jumped into the river, and joined Light, making a big splash. His face expressing a sinister delight.

Light turned to run, but Nazareth grabbed him and pushed him back under the water, holding him to the floor.

Light struggled against Nazareth's grip, but the man was so strong he couldn't free himself. Then Light remembered his baton. He unbuckled his belt and reached into his trousers, and pulled out the weapon. Pressing a button, he extended it, and the end hit Nazareth directly in the shin when it telescoped. Nazareth grabbed his leg. Despite the heaviness of the water, the spring to Light's baton performed perfectly, and the distraction was all Light needed to free himself, and get to the bank.

Light gasped, coughed, and sucked air into his lungs. His hair was plastered to his head and in was in his eyes, and he wondered if he was overdue for a haircut. He slicked his hair back. He waded to the edge and crawled up to shore.

"You little shit!" Nazareth said, feeling his shin. But the pain seemed to fade quickly. "I knew Master Claw shouldn't have given that back to you. I even raised concerns of him doing so, but he insisted as a show of good faith. Where were you hiding that?"

"That's my little secret," he said, gripping the two-and-half-foot baton. "But if you come any closer, I'll shove this straight up your ass! This place seems to thrive on people getting their pleasure in other people's torment. Come to think of it, you'd probably like it. No wonder you're always surrounded by men." Light grinned innately.

He had an idea, but he needed to make Nazareth angry. Emotion was the simplest thing to manipulate in a person, and anger was the easiest. When someone is enraged, they can lose all control over common sense and reality.

It seemed to work, to garnish Nazareth's ire, and the big man growled with a blinding anger. But Light knew it more than what he said, it was what had happened—how he had destroyed the fabric of the Dragon Sect and the death of Terrance Claw. Nazareth was had a short-fuse, and Light knew he could use it to his advantage.

"I'm going to kill you!" Nazareth said as he stomped onto shore. "And then after I'm finished, I'm going to have my way with Tigressa, and split her in two!" Nazareth now grinned. "She needs a real man to fill her, not a flank like you. You probably enjoyed it when you were _played-with_ during your "evaluation" sessions in Tigressa's private chambers, and with Riki. Sai and I saw you with your ass in the air when we came to collect that traitor who wanted to sell fake information on the Kira Task Force. You're a pervert. But, of course, you like the 'boys', don't you? You just have to read your name backwards for anyone to figure that out."

Light blinked twice. " _What?_ "

" _Yagami_ —if you read your surname backwards in English, it's: I'M-A-GAY," Nazareth said. He laughed boisterously. "Oh, come on, don't tell me no one ever pointed that out to you? For a detective, you're so naive."

Now Light became the angry one.

_How dare he make mockery of me! And yet, how could I have missed it?_

But his recent admission that he may be bi-sexual had nothing to do with his name, and he didn't care. A name was a name, and Yagami was a proud name, the kanji meant "knight" and "god".

Light exhaled deeply, calmingly.

Nazareth had turned his own trick against him. No one but L had ever done anything like that to him. But he couldn't let it bother him. He had to get the upper hand. He turned and looked at Tigressa and Riki on other side of the river.

"I'm not gay, but I've had my eyes open to new possibilities in personal growth," he said truthfully, looking at Tigressa. He silently breathed a sign of relief when he saw Riki standing uninjured. "It's best to know who you are early in life than to wait a lifetime and wish you had known, and miss so many opportunities." _—Philosophically speaking—_ "As for Tigressa, if you touch her, or Riki, then I'll kill you where you stand, Nazareth. This whole escapade ends now!"

Suddenly, Nazareth unbuckled is pants belt and literally ripped off his trousers exposing more snake tattoos, snaking their way around his legs, all the way down to his ankle. He also revealed, along with wearing a pair of black speedos that left little to the imagination, that he, too, had a hidden weapon—a sizeable knife, inserted into a flat scabbard, wrapped around his outer left thigh.

He pulled it out. Light was no expert, but it looked military grade, a combat knife with sharp, serrated ridges, on one side.

"I'm going to slice you into pieces, Detective," Nazareth smirked, branding his large knife. He even licked the flat surface like some sadistic wild man. "Then I'm going to feed them to the Komodo Dragon. And as a personal triumphant, I'm going pickle your genitals for a trophy. I'll then set them beside the tongue of that Kira Task Force informant that I cut out. I enjoy collecting body parts."

_To be continued..._


	18. Pain And Sorrow

Light had no desire to donate his genitals to Nazareth's private sick collection. When he was dead, he had instructions for his family to donate his brain to medical science and his organs for transplant for those indeed. One act of selflessness from Kira.

If Nazareth wanted his genitals, then the man had a repulsive fetish that fell under severe mental illness, for which no cognitive therapy could repair. Therefore, he needed to be removed from society so he couldn't cause anymore harm. There was nothing he could do about KF4's tongue. However, he could stop Nazareth here and now from killing anyone else.

Nazareth came at him with the knife. He sliced through the air with a swiftness Light didn't think the big man had with such a hefty frame. Light jumped back, then pivoted out of the way from other quick attacks. His baton was little help. With the skill Nazareth was exhibiting with his knife, every time they clashed—Light putting up his baton to block—the knife bit further into it, and he knew eventually the baton would break. Some metals were stronger than others.

But he had to thank his father for those defensive lessons when he was younger and the police foundations that gave him weapons training to defend himself in this situation now.

With one downward thrust, just as he had predicted, his baton was cut in two when he attempted to block—the knife slicing through it like butter at a ninety-degree angle. Light held the baton in hand, or what was left with it. Then tossed it away.

He took several steps back to gain distance.

He then saw out of the corner of his eye a thin metal pole that was holding up a growing tree close-by. He bolted towards it, snatched it from its twist-tie holdings and pulled it out from the ground. The total length of it was approximately fourteen feet long.

He twirled it around himself in the style of a bo-staff and then brought it bare, or more trait he learned in defensive training.

Nazareth laughed. "Do you really think you can use something like that against me?"

"If _God_ is my witness and my training holds true, then I'm willing to try…" _I don't have the Death Note to fall back on this time to kill, so let's see what I can do with it?_

But the moment Light attempted to use it against Nazareth, the villain very easily cut the pole in two with his knife. The metal was not as strong in the slightest, Light would say it was a weak form of aluminum. It was for the tree, just not for combat. He discarded one half and then tried to defend himself with the remainder. Nazareth then cut this portion in half, as well.

Frustrated, Light growled under his breath. However, he was not one to give up so easily. He defeated L, after all. But pitted against L was much different against someone like Nazareth. Light used his mental strength, here he had to use his physical strength.

He twirled the metal pole pieces in hand, they were light, and he could do so with ease.

They had now become escrima sticks, weapons that were designed specially to combat knives and other smaller swords in close combat, that gave the user more freedom to defend against an attack—technical weapons taken from Filipino martial arts. His police foundations defensive trainer said that an officer should not only carry a gun, even a back-up weapon, but should also know how to wield a secondary weapon in addition to a gun. The body was a weapon in its own rite, but he had not been talking about that.

During Light's training, his defence trainer discovered that Light worked well with a baton, and even a bo-staff—it was a surprising hidden talent even to Light. Even escrima sticks came natural. And they were easily wielded, because of Light's thin frame. He had good reflexes in his wrists and arms. So, his trainer recommended Light carry on him an expandable baton. He was glad he took his trainer's advise. The baton had done its job, but now he had to relay on his other skill sets to get the job done.

In addition, Light trained his body for months to hone those particular weapons. Along with his intelligence, he came near the top of his self-defensive classes.

Nazareth came at him again, knife in attack position. But the brute was easily avoided this time, as Light batted away the flat side of the knife with one escrima stick, basically blocking Nazareth's attack without coming in direct contact with the blade's sharp edge. Then he pivoted to one side and used the other escrima stick to swat Nazareth hard across the backside.

Nazareth let out a sharp yelp, feeling his backside. "What the _fuck_?"

Light twirled the escrima sticks in hand and smiled with a new found confidence. But he knew that one mistake could cost him. He felt something new inside, a sensation of pride and excitement. He was holding his own against this Yukaza enforcer, and he didn't need, or even miss the Death Note. Kira was all about defending the innocent, but now he—Light Yagami—had two people to defend without the Death Note.

For a second, he felt using the Death Note was a coward's way of defending the innocent, as he stood against to Nazareth in physical combat. Then, he shoved that thought aside.

He wore two hats: One of Light Yagami, NPA officer; and one of Kira—both were protectors of the meek.

Using the Death Note gave him the power to change the world and to alter the habits of those who wished others harm. With the advent of Kira, the world had become a better and safer place to live in. And he didn't feel regret for what Kira had done.

_I am Kira. And I will not change my methodology of punishing the wicked for anyone!_

His rivalry with L had excited him, but now this battle with Nazareth gave him providence on a whole different level. With L, it was psychological. With Nazareth, he had found something that he had been lacking, and strangely enough, it was a physical prowess.

Light felt happy fighting this man. Not bogged down by the Death Note. It gave him a freedom he couldn't quite explain. A mental image of braking from shackles burst into his mind—shackles from that being cuffed to the Death Note gave him.

Would he stop using the Death Note? — _No_ , he thought— But he decided he would engage more in this sort of field work, like his father did in his younger years.

"Come on, Nazareth, come and get me," Light taunted the big man, wiggling one finger on his right hand which just happened to be his middle finger. It was a ' _come get me, and a fuck you_ ' at the same time.

Enraged, Nazareth charged in with a blinding rage.

Light drew him in, and he readied his escrima sticks.

Nazareth sliced through the air with his knife, his emotions driving his actions.

Light ducked, but then Nazareth reached down with his free hand and grabbed Light's belt, which was an unexpected and a surprising move. Nazareth pulled on it, yanking Light forward. The Yukaza brute then delivered a crushing head smash that drove Light back. And Light collapsed to the ground when released on his butt, a little disorientated.

Light dropped one escrima stick and held his face, his vision blurry, his hand covered in blood from a bloody nose. Had Nazareth broken his nose? It hurt, but it didn't feel broken. Nazareth's nose was also bleeding, dripping out of both nostrils from the attack. But he was smiling, his teeth crimson with his own blood as it dripped into his mouth.

"Shit!" Light said, and he tried to roll to his feet. But Nazareth was right there and kicked him in the stomach, winding him. Light landed on his back. Then the enforcer shifted his footing, and stomped down hard, onto Light's mid-region, and crotch. Light cried out. His other escrima stick released.

"I'm going to crush your manhood before I take your life, Detective," Nazareth said laughing. "I had thought to cut it from your corpse and pickle it. Now, I see how _small_ you really are, and it would be an embarrassment to showcase such a pathetic specimen."

Just then, Riki shouted as he ran across the wooden bridge, and drove his body into Nazareth's frame.

"Don't hurt him, you bastard!" The impact wasn't enough to knock Nazareth over.

Light took a moment to tend to his pain, cringing at the hurt. He had only been kicked in the balls once in his life, and it was not a pleasant experience. In fact, it was one of the most painful things he had ever felt. This equaled that.

"You little shit!" the enforcer shouted.

It was then Nazareth picked up Riki by the throat with his large muscular hand.

Riki shrugged, his legs dangling above the ground as Nazareth brought him face-to-face. Tigressa also joined the fight and picked up one of Light's dropped escrima sticks. She then hit Nazareth over the back of the head with it. It didn't do much, but Riki was dropped. Nazareth also dropped his knife. It fell and the blade stuck into the ground a few inches away near his right foot.

Nazareth then struck Tigressa hard with the back of his hand across her face. Tigressa recoiled and dropped to the ground.

Something inside Light snapped. He charged Nazareth with all his strength and barrelled into the large man, crashing directly in his stomach. This took Nazareth by surprise, winding him. But it had only been temporary. Nazareth grabbed Light, clutched him around the torso, and threw him back, slamming his body to the ground, like a wrestler's body slam. The move was called a Suplex.

Light let out a silence gasp and his entire body went momentarily limp, his pain receptors on overload, paralyzed with shock.

Nazareth stood up straight and grinned, his teeth and face more bloodied than before. He seemed to relish in the sadism.

"In a previous life, before joining the Yukaza, I was a wrestler," Nazareth explained. "But I was banned for unsportsmanlike conduct. I broke a man's neck with that same move, but I only put a quarter of my power into what I did to you, Detective. So even though your body may be in shock at the moment, eventually your recover— _if_ I let you!"

Light couldn't move, his body not obeying his command at the moment. It felt like every muscle and nerve ending in his body was in a state of atrophy, and on fire.

He thought: _Am I going to die here? Kira's plight to end the world of injustice and crime will have to be carried on by Misa. Damn it! That idiot isn't smart enough. I should've left when I had the chance. Ran away with Tigressa and Riki. But I was foolish thinking I could take on this lunatic. I'm strong enough…_

Just then, Riki went to whack Nazareth between the legs with an upward thrust using an escrima stick.

But at the last moment, Nazareth instinctively cupped his genitals to prevent it. Yet, he left himself open elsewhere, and Riki hit the big man with the escrima stick all over his body, causing the enforcer to yelp out in pain.

Tigressa also helped, using the other escrima stick. Now it was two against one, and Nazareth was finally on the wrong side of things, swinging his arms to stop the pair from striking him. For a second, the scene reminded Light of King Kong—the giant ape swinging his arms haphazardly against bi-planes.

And yet, Light could only watch.

He gripped his hand into a fist, sensation slowly returning to his body. But it wasn't enough. The shock to his body had been great. How he fell, created a massive shock to his nervous system. It was called Neurogenic shock, which affected both the nerves and the spine, disrupting the autonomic pathways of blood flow. Some people could recover quickly and he wondered why he could not.

If he didn't get up soon, Nazareth would kill them both.

_Misa…_

Just then, as he called her name, a black object winked into existence in the distance. It took him a moment to focus on it, and when he realized who it was, he was ecstatic.

"Ryuk, over here!" he called to the Shinigami. Light was the only one who could see him, and the others were too distracted to have heard his call. Light felt more of his body awaken from the shock and he began to move again, forcing himself to roll over, onto his hands and knees.

"You look like crap, Light," Ryuk chuckled, as he flew over and landed. "Glad I got here when I did." He explained how Misa used landmarks in the "Probable Orb" to guide him here. He said he would explain about the Orb later. It was a bit of a hit and miss at first, but the Shinigami finally manifested into the underground complex, purely on luck, and then focused on the piece of the Death Note in Light's watch. "What's going on?" Ryuk looked at the trio fighting.

"Quick, Ryuk! Do you have any kind of a writing instrument?"

"Only the feather pen I use to write names in my Death Note. Why?"

Light told him to give it to him quickly, then he yanked three times on the side of his watch ejecting the secret compartment.

With Ryuk's pen and its infinite ink, he wrote down Nazareth's name on the small piece of the Death Note, very small. As long as it was legible, size didn't matter. Riki had told him Nazareth's name as they ran through the corridors, when asked. The boy had remembered seeing it when he had downloaded all the Yukaza members onto the USB—his six names and oddly spelt two middle names. Later, Ryuk would explain Misa couldn't kill Nazareth, as she watched him in the 'Portable Ob' because of those two odd middle names—the kanji kept changing due to some unknown cause.

If Ryuk wanted to, he could kill Nazareth. But that had to be his decision. He wouldn't kill, if asked, or he would die like Rem.

So, Light could only watch, and wait for forty-seconds to tick by before Nazareth died of a fatal heart attack.

But as the seconds ticked on, the horror of the situation became apparent. Nazareth gripped both Tigressa and Riki by the throats, manhandling them both. He then lifted them both into the air, and a sinister smile crossed his bloodied face. Both Tigress and Riki struggling ferociously against the man's grip.

And then it happened…

Light's eyes bulged with utter shock, his mouth agape, extending an arm out, as if doing so could stop the murderous act with a god's cosmic influence.

Nazareth grinned as he took pride in snapping both Tigressa and Riki's necks. Then the enforcer dropped them, their bodies hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement, folding under their own weight.

" _NOOOOO!_ " Light cried out, his eyes stinging with tears.

They had helped him, but paid the ultimate price for their selflessness.

"I should've written your name down the moment I heard it, you monstrous bastard!" Light cursed, not caring his exposure as Kira.

He looked at Tigressa and Riki's lifeless bodies and an anger swelled inside him. His adrenaline pumped, and his body finally began to listen to his brain. He forced himself to stand.

He calculated there was thirty-seconds more before Nazareth died form a heart attack. But that was not enough. Using the Death Note to kill him would be a hollow victory. Like Ito from the SAT surveillance team when he killed Sai's partner, Tigressa and Riki deserved better than this. They were innocent, their deaths here unnecessary.

He had the USB stick with all the names of the Dragon Sect, but that didn't matter now. And it wasn't Stockholm Syndrome. He loved Tigressa, he had fallen for her. And he thought they could be lovers again. He would find a way to make it happen even with Misa in the picture. He would find a way. But now, all that was gone.

"I'm going to kill you, you fucking bastard! I'm not going to wait for the Death Note to do it for me!"

Nazareth looked at him a bit strange, as if trying to figure out what he meant.

Then Light, with new purpose, somersaulted for Nazareth's large knife, and grabbed it. Ryuk tried to stop Light, seeing no purpose in risking his life. But Light saw every risk in it, and plunged the knife deep into Nazareth's chest. Nazareth gasped, as Light pushed it in deeper and deeper, tears flowing involuntarily down from his eyes as he saw the big man's eyes bulge with shock and awe.

"This is for them, and for all the innocent people in the world!" Light proclaimed, as if Nazareth was to blame for all the evil on the planet. Right now, Light saw him as such. He may not have only known Tigressa and Riki for long, but he had developed a kinship with them that he couldn't explain—much like a family. And family deserved to be avenged for the wrongs done upon them. "I'm going to eradicate your whole organization and all those like it from the world! Tigressa and Riki's sacrifice will not be in vain."

It was then the Death Note kicked it, and Light could actually see Nazareth's chest thump from the massive heart attack inflicted. But he continued to hold the knife and plunged deeper, and it all the way to the hilt into Nazareth's chest.

After what felt like endless seconds, he then let go, and let Nazareth's body drop to the ground, limp-less.

Light collapsed to his knees and huffed out a few breaths. He then went over to Tigressa's body, and he brought her head to his chest, resting it on his knees, cupping her body compassionately. Then he cried. He was Kira, but he couldn't hide his human emotions. He had never cried like this for anyone. But he felt a pain and sorrow in his heart that he had never experienced.

Ryuk once said that anyone who uses a Death Note will eventually feel the pain and sorrow of its use.

Light had killed, evoked justice upon thousands of people—criminals—but seeing _this_ firsthand, and because of his own actions was something he would never forget. His body felt a little shaky, and hot. Was he in shock? He thought he was stronger than this?

_The Death Eraser_ could not even bring them back because they were murdered by another human being, not the Death Note.

"I'm sorry, Asumi," using her real name. And then also apologized to Riki; Hiro.

Ryuk came to stand over him. "Hey Light, you okay? I've never seen you like this before."

He looked up at Ryuk, his eyes filled with tears. "This is _why_ I do what I do, Ryuk. This is why Kira is so important to the world! And I will continue to be Kira, and bring those that hurt the innocent to justice—with one judgment at a one. Death to the wicked! This I swear!"

"While entertaining me," Ryuk then said.

Light ignored the ignorant remark.

As if things couldn't get any worse, Kito, Terrance's pet Komodo Dragon, suddenly appeared on the other side of the river. It saw him, dived in the water, and then emerged on the other side of the bank. It was obviously still hungry, seeing three dead bodies. The other Yukaza most likely had fled.

Light looked at it with the most intense hatred he gave anything in his life and his eyes seemed to glower a with a devilish crimson.

The creature suddenly stopped, then tilted his head as far up as it could go, and appeared to look at something standing near-by. Did it see Ryuk?

Light looked at the Shinigami as it waved at the amphibian, saying: " _Hello…Shoo lizard! Go away!_ "

Kito remained for a moment, and then latched onto Nazareth's right leg with his massive jaws, and then began to drag his lifeless body onto the river, vacating the immediate area, submerging.

Light knew it wouldn't return for a while, now that it had something else to eat.

_To be continued..._


	19. Dedication

When the events of the "Yukaza Incident" was transposed to record, Light left out some details. His report to the NPA indicated that he had been tortured, but he didn't yield any personal information and lied about the methods they used for personal reasons.

They received Light's "message" when he gave the Yukaza access to the secret NPA server, it then triggered a hunt to find Light. His father then offering to bargain for Light's release knowing he was alive because only the "message" could come from him. Unfortunately, the Yukaza had highly sophisticated systems, and tracking them was difficult; the origin point was bounced from fake server IP's all over Tokyo.

But Misa later explained she had tracked Light down with smart methods of her own, using her lap top and following clues, with friends, to help her map out suitable areas where Light may have been taken.

In fact, and she kept this to herself but told Light in private later, she was able to hack into the city CCTV system, and follow the car Light had been taken in after he was rendered unconscious by the man later known as Sai. When she could no longer follow him that way, she then explained about Ryuk's _Portable Orb_ thing.

Why hadn't the Shinigami told him about it before?

But Ryuk often left out important things for Light figure things out of himself. It was more entertaining that way.

Light insisted that a paired funeral be held for Tigressa and Riki because without them he would not be alive. He insisted they at least deserved that much recognition of their lives. They gave their lives for him, and in introspective, he felt a pang of regret for his actions in using the Death Note on some of his victims. And he wished he had chosen his actions more wisely before murdering those twelve innocent FBI agents who had come to Japan to hunt down Kira, including Ray Penber.

And yet, he also told himself he couldn't dwell on the past. He had to press on.

And now, after recent events, he was only further determined to kill criminals as Kira with the Death Note.

He gave the USB Stick to Misa. He had omitted it from his report and told her to wait for a few days before diving into it, to kill every person it listed in the most brutal way possible, and not just with a heart attack. _Be inventive_ , he told her.

Light told himself that he would dedicate Kira's next series of killings to Tigressa and Riki.

When he had first told Misa about Tigressa, she gazed at him with intense jealousy and bitched that some other woman had her way with him. But he told her—he lied to Misa—that he had only used Tigressa to get what he wanted—that it was the only way to escape his dire predicament. That seemed to satisfy her. Especially after he gave her an intense, seemingly passion kiss on the lips. Then told her that he would ravage her to the peak of ecstasy later to thank her for rescuing him—that he had missed her. A lie.

When he had arrived home, his father had given him a big hug. Light honestly thought he was going to die. He was instructed to see a psychotherapist at least once a week which was standard after returning from an intense situation like that. But he knew the score. It was a way the NPA to get more information from the mission, while helping him deal with any feelings he may be experiencing as a result from his ordeal. Yet, he knew enough to keep his mouth shut about certain things—only the basic facts, he would tell.

And one of which things was the Death Note.

Then there was the clandestine and seemingly celestial being that called itself Morph, owner of the now known _Life Note_ —the strict opposite of the Death Note. He said he was the last of his kind, and yet he also said he was similar to the biblical tale of LEGION, a demonic being with one form but many voices. And if what Morph said could be believed, and to Light it was mere conjecture—and yet how could be disprove it?—Morph was the reason for the Death Note falling at Light's high school.

What did the future hold? He never thought the future was written in stone, and with so many other Death Notes appearing in the Human World as of late, what fate awaited him?

_Could Time itself be altered? Would Kira become ruler of the world, or would a not-yet rival be waiting in the wind to challenge him once more like L? Will Morph become an enemy, too?_

He told Misa about Morph, and, in this case, Ryuk knew about _The Brigade of Life_ , but he didn't know anything about Morph.

Many years ago, the Shinigami and _The Brigade of Life_ fought on the battleground for souls, or life energy as it was known back then. The Shinigami King won against _The Brigade of Life_ , and nearly wiped them out. The entire war was about Life and Death. _The Brigade of Life_ thought all life should be preserved and allowed to exist forever which did nothing to keep the "gods of death" alive, because they needed to take life to exist. Death Notes and Life Notes were used to battle. Rules were established in combat. But the Shinigami King, who at that time was a general in the Shinigami Army—they had no King or ruler back then—broke the rules, formed a pact with other powerful Shinigami, and changed the tide.

Light remembered the large mural on the wall of the Yukaza Dining Hall just before he met Terrance Claw. It was a portrait of a battle in the Edo period of Japan, a very bloody but ever revolving and changing era, and he couldn't help form a similarity between the wars humans fought and the tale between the Shinigami and The Brigade of Life.

The entire concept of existence was all about war and the fight to survive—evil versus good. Sometimes evil won, good was not always the victor like in many fairy tales. The world was more complex than that and the world was turned upside down. Then the tides would turn and the world would change once more. It was a yo-yo struggle humans fought in every generation.

But Light pushed all those negative thoughts away. The members of the KIRA Task Force were again in his apartment and they were discussing the latest Kira reports. Misa had done well. She managed to multitask in both finding him and killing criminals with the Death Note. They were minor criminals, those who had committed small crimes, but it was still justice for Kira. The task force members were busy discussing things amongst themselves as Light sat quietly at his bank of computers in thought.

Then he felt a hand cup his shoulder and he was startled out of his reverie, he jumped slightly.

"I'm sorry, son, I didn't mean to scare you," his father said, removing his hand.

"You didn't, dad, I was just deep in thought. About Kira, about the Yukaza, about so many other things" —he produced a smile— "I think I'm getting a headache with all this thinking."

"It's been a week since you were rescued. And thanks to you, Tatami was arrested, and a thorough investigation has begun into his background and association with the Yukaza. Other NPA officers and high ranking officers, even some in DIET, have suddenly disappeared, and we suspect they all had ties with the Yukaza, called out from their positions in fear that you knew about them. Theory is if they were captured, they would reveal secret information about the Yukaza."

At this time, the rest of the task force was listening in.

"Yeah, I figured as much," Light said. "The Yukaza are a much larger organization than we originally thought, and they have countless branches throughout Japan, and indeed, the world, all interconnected, and all in constant communication. It's going to be very difficult to eliminate them."

_But the USB stick with the Dragon Sect dossiers will be a start_ , he thought. _Thank you, Riki._

"Um, Light?" Matsuda then spoke up. "You'll be pleased to know, we managed to track down Riki's last known relatives, his grandparents. We learned his father has since passed away in a drunk driving accident and his mother committed suicide a year after his disappearance. She left a note that she couldn't bare to live without her son." He passed the information on to Soichiro Yagami that was in a brown folder.

Light then took it, passed to him by his father. He would most assuredly read it later. He thanked Matsuda.

"As for Asumi Satou, or Mistress Tigressa," Matsuda continued, he had a second folder. "She has a long list of criminal priors and associations with other groups, the last of whom was the Yukaza, and when she died, she was twenty-five years old. She was most known within the sex trade."

For some reason, none of that mattered to Light. He could forgive her. And when he thought back to his time being tortured, he blushed and produced a smile for which he put a hand to his face in an attempt to hide. There were some people a person met in their life that changed their entire outlook, and Tigressa had been one of those people in Light's life. He would never forget her.

He could still smell her sweet perfume when he closed his eyes and thought back, and feel her voluptuous naked body pressed against him when they made love.

He was awakened from his reverie once again by his father with another cup of a hand on his shoulder. And Light jumped flinched. Obviously his mind was not on the task at hand.

"Are you okay, son?" his father asked.

"Yeah, just a little tired. Perhaps the last week is finally catching up to me…"

"We should go, and let you rest," his father said; the rest agreed. "You've been through a heralding ordeal, Light. Just promise me something, continue to talk with the therapist. Don't skip any sessions. It's very important after what happened."

Light nodded, and played the good son. "I will, Dad. Besides, the new chief of the NPA has given me specific orders to do so. And, when I'm feeling up to it, along with my work on the KIRA Case, the new chief would like to consult with me on other cases outside the main stream, since I did such a good job with my _accidental infiltration_ of the Dragon Sect and its takedown." He smirked.

"There's not much happening with the KIRA Case, so maybe a little change of scenery would be good for you, Light," Aizawa agreed. He had left the task force for a time, but was not a full fledged member after L's death. "Sometimes you have to walk away from a problem to get a new perspective to formulate a reasonable solution."

Matsuda nodded. "Good advise, Aizawa," he said.

Mogi, the strong-man of the task force, nodded agreeing. He wasn't much of a talker.

"That's excellent advise, Aizawa," Light replied, smiling. He agreed whole-heartedly with the idea. "You know, I think I'll do exactly that, and I think I'll put in for some vacation time to clear my head, as well."

His father smiled. "Your mother and sister miss you, they want you to come home for a visit. You missed your last birthday because you were working so hard. This may just be a father speaking, but I'm really proud of everything you've accomplished over the years, and especially this past one. And together, we'll all catch Kira. But for the immediate moment, take some rest."

With thank-you's and goodbyes, the task force left, and Light found himself alone in his apartment. Misa was out on one of her acting shoots. He hadn't written any names in the Death Note over the past week since his homecoming, leaving it all to Misa, and he knew he should get back to his judgements, but he didn't feel like it at the moment.

Tigressa kept popping into his head and he felt his heart ache for her. And he felt he needed to release that ache.

He undressed and took a shower, trying to relax. He felt the warmth of the water sooth his tense muscles.

Suddenly, he jumped with a start, as Morph winked spontaneously into existence in the shower. The boy was dressed as Light had last remembered him, but the water didn't touch him, as if rolling off an invisible barrier. Light turned off the water, grabbed a towel, and covered himself.

"Don't be shy, Light Yagami," Morph said with a chuckle. "Why wouldn't you enjoy some alone time? Were you thinking of Tigressa while _enjoying_ yourself?" He laughed.

"Get out of here, Morph! What the hell do you want you?" Light whipped back the sliding glass screen, and stepped out of the walk-in shower. Morph joined him.

"I wish for an answer," Morph spoke. "I was wondering if you would like to become a host to anchor me to the Human World? I do have others, but you would be the strongest one. You never gave me an answer. When Aiden found out his lover was killed, he took a gun to his head and blew his brains out. He said something about 'soulmates'. I don't know, and I don't care. I notice you haven't killed a single person yet since you arrived back home. Are you having a change of heart in using the Death Note?"

"No," Light said, drying his hair with another towel. "I couldn't just judge anyone when I got back, or that would point the suspicion directly on me in being Kira. One of the task force members is already suspicious of me being Kira, but he seems to have put that aside for the moment. I'll kill everyone on the USB stick, but I'll bide my time. I have had word that some of those on the list have already either died in shootouts with rival gangs or committed suicide fearing Kira's reprisal, since the Dragon Sect's leader Terrance Claw was killed by Kira. Or, that's what everyone thinks. No one else knows you killed him. Except for Misa."

"If you think about it, I did Kira a favour. You'll be more feared now after a leader of a Yukaza Sect is killed."

"No," he said plainly, draping the towel around his shoulders. "All you did was make my job more difficult. You've driven the Yukaza and other gangs further underground. Fear isn't what I want. What I want is an orderly, peaceful world. The NPA raided the Dragon Sect's underground complex, but everything vital was already removed after a quick evacuation by the Yukaza. I told Misa about you…" —and he told Morph how she watched his initial appearance in Terrance Claw's private chamber through Ryuk's _Probable Orb_ , an over-see tool Shinigami kept with them. "Ryuk also gave me a little history about _The Brigade of Life_ , more than you told me. I understand now what you meant by LEGION. You hold the remainder of your kind inside you."

"You're very astute, Light Yagami. That is exactly what I meant. I may be the last of my kind, in a metaphysical sense. But I hold a collective race inside me, their voices speak to me, their eyes and ears ever watchful. I am literally a god."

Light couldn't argue with that. The bible says God is omnipotent and omniscient, all seeing and all knowing, and if Morph shared those qualities, did that make him a god, too? But with the power of the _Life Note_ —what other powers did Morph have?

Morph smiled, said: "I can see your mind racing, Light Yagami. You're wondering what other powers I have, right?"

"Are you psychic, too?"

"No, just intuitive," he said. "Rest assured, I don't have the power of creationism or the ability to kill millions of people at once, I'm just a being with the ability to resurrect the dead. And my reward for my deeds is existence. I can choose to remain in the Human World, or go elsewhere. But you humans are so much fun to watch. I enjoy staying here. So, I anchor myself to a human host and feed off their soul energy ever so slightly for sustenance; they don't even notice. But they have to agree to the symbiotic relationship—a contract—or it won't work. In turn, I protect them from harm from the Death Note. If a person decides to jump off a building or decides to commit suicide, I can't protect them. But I leave they little bit out when they form a contract with me."

T _hat makes you a trickster like Loki of Norse lore_ , Light thought.

Light talked as he left the bathroom and began to get dressed. "You devour a small part of their soul while giving them protection like a demon? Or is it similar to when a human trades half their remaining lifespan for the Shinigami Eyes?"

"The analogy is correct on both fronts, but I'm no demon, and they _can_ go to either Heaven or Hell when they die—unlike when a human uses a Death Note. You go somewhere else entirely. Once again, would you care know where? I can tell you."

Light took a moment to think about it. Where would he go after he died? Normal thinking in religious circles tells those who live a righteous life, go to Heaven. For those who commit asks of evil, they suffer eternal damnation in the fiery pits of Hell. If a soul has neither option, would they then remain in an intermediate state of purgatory where the soul cannot rest? Did he really want to know?

He mentally shook his head, buttoning a shirt. "Once again, I don't need nor do I wish to know. I've willfully given up my very soul to make this world a better place. Sacrifices were made, including personal ones."

Morph smiled. "I'll let you in on a little secret, a little incentive to my offer. Once someone is connected to the Life Note, the aging process slows down. One of my host's lived for over two-hundred years, but eventually took his own life." He tore off a piece of the Life Note and gave it to Light. Light pitched it between two fingers and he suddenly felt something like a mild electrical shock. "Keep this with you. When the time comes and you need it, just call me and I'll be there. You're correct, you don't need to know what happens after death. And since you've touched the Life Note, you and I are now connected—but not through symbiosis. As for my offer, we'll just leave it up in the air for now."

Now fully dressed, Light prepared himself for some personal work on his computer. Morph followed him out into the living room.

_Fine, you've had your say, Morph. Why are you still here?_

As Light sat down in his chair, he turned around to his bank of computers and awakened the system that had gone to sleep. As he input the password, he heard Morph say, "Wow, Kira lives in this dump? It's so small compared to Terrance Claw's underground complex. I would've though you'd live some place a lot richer."

"I have to stay incognito to do my work. Anything else, would be suspicious."

No response came from Morph.

After a minute of silence, Light then rotated his chair around, and found Morph gone. He had just disappeared without a word.

But something had been left behind on the coffee table. He went over and picked up a full sheet of paper. It was a full page of the Life Note, and on the back it said: " _Ut Id Sapienter Utaris_ ", in Latin. It meant: _Use It Wisely_. Then in smaller print, it read in Japanese: _We'll meet again someday, Light Yagami. Stay Alive!_

Light sat back in his chair, one leg crossed over a knee and contemplated recent events. Now he had the Death Note and a full page of the Life Note, and a small piece for his watch, if need-be—with a 72 hour window to use it after someone died. He literally had the power of life and death in his hands.

_Yes, I will use it wisely. And can I use it to prevent Ryuk from killing me with the Death Note when the time comes?_

He shoved the page in his pocket and then went back to work. He inserted the USB stick that Riki gave him into his system and looked over the dossier of Yukaza names, then cross-referenced those that had either died in rival gang shootouts or committed suicide recently, since he had obtained the profiles, putting red X's across their faces.

But after everything that had occurred, he felt empty. Some would call it falling for your captor, but he called it love. He missed Tigressa. If she had survived, he would have called his mission a complete success. He did obtain what he originally wanted—the names of a lot of criminals to kill; the Dragon Sect. But it was a hollow victory, because a good woman had died.

Was one good woman's life worth that of a hundred hardened criminals?

He retrieved the Death Note from its hidden location in his apartment and began to write down names, and as he wrote them, he felt he could literally hear the screams of those he was killing by heart attack and other means.

"Kira will cleanse the world of evil and I'll would dedicate their deaths to you, Tigressa. _Kira has spoken!_ "

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy Death Note: 'Hollow Victory'. Stay tuned for the sequel: 'The Power Of A God'.


End file.
